


Lusus Naturae

by EsperKitty



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon)
Genre: Alucard | Adrian Tepes | Arikado Genya Needs a Hug, Blood and Violence, Explicit Language, Gen, Hallucinations, Heavy Angst, How Do I Tag, Nightmares, Past Violence, no seriously how do i tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:55:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 36,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26844001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EsperKitty/pseuds/EsperKitty
Summary: After being abandoned and betrayed, Alucard swears to live as his father did: Alone. But his plans of a life of solitude are quickly disrupted when he encounters something strange, and he cannot make sense of his emotions.
Comments: 22
Kudos: 9





	1. Chapter 1

Within the air of the wilderness there clung a silent dread for which no amounts of jokes or jests nor hymns and prayers could cure. If the trees could speak they would surely be screaming words of warning to all those who wandered by, urging them to turn back and never approach these lands again but alas, no mortal has yet to decipher the enigmatic speech of howling winds and rustling leaves, letting these travelers venture further into these woods with the naive belief that they could conquer any and all threats that came their way, be it fickle weather or ferocious beast.

This belief held fast and strong until they found the glittering peaks of a seemingly man-made structure that crept above even the tallest trees as if it were a beacon to follow, promising a reward for their long and treacherous journey through the untamed outdoors.

These travelers again in not so blissful ignorance heed not the warnings of the trees and bramble that scratch their faces and legs in an attempt to ward them away from the hidden danger that lurks ahead in the guise of a civilized estate standing proud within the forest. Such travelers will only realize their folly once they reached the entrance of this extravagant structure only to find a grisly sight to welcome them in the form of corpses skewered by wooden spikes that framed the stairway leading up to the building's ornate front doors. It is only then do these travelers come to the realization that they stand before what must surely be the gates of hell, and it is only then do they learn that is far too late to return from whence they came.

Each traveler who comes across this castle of corruption and corpses soon join the parade of bodies, ironically forming a straight path of blood and gore towards the still pristine and ethereal castle whose beauty still shined despite, or perhaps because, of the rotting bones that lay at its feet like a sphinx sitting and waiting for prey to blindly enter its mouth in search of treasure.

That was the plan at least, so thought the lord and guardian of the estate as he positioned the first two bodies in their places at the steps of the castle. To fully form the road of death would be a long and tedious process of waiting for stupid humans, vain and foolish and foolishly vain, to wander to his home demanding he entertain them. But that time would be well waited, despite still tediously watching each moment of sunlight fade into darkness and waiting for that chilling darkness to give way to another day to start the process over, for time was something he had an abundance of being a creature that could live centuries and never grow a single gray hair nor the tiniest of wrinkles.

Though it had scarcely been a single day when the lord's resolve was brought to question. A storm had appeared, creeping from the horizon until it was now over overhead and showering the estate he had barely settled into after diving deep into his studies in an attempt to make the never ending march of time more bearable.

That is to say that Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, now better known as Alucard, sought to be as far away as he can physically manage to be from the pest that called itself humankind.

And today of all days, or rather this night of all nights, Alucard's new found hatred for the people he once had saved from his father's deadly tyranny met its first test.

He had initially been disturbed when in what once was his father's study, he noticed a peculiar shadow being cast once the booming lightning cracked like a whip, now the most annoying of weapons in his opinion, to reveal the form of a demon not too far from his estate. Though he had only caught a glimpse of it he saw enough to know what had been prowling the stormy skies. Both the maned head and quadruped body were that of a lion, on its back were large bat-like wings that were as wide as the trees around the castle were tall, approximately ten to twenty feet each if he absolutely had to pick a number, and a long tail adorned in what he knew to be venomous barbs lagged behind the beast.

"The night hoard," Alucard growled to himself, though he found it odd that a manticore and only a singular manticore of all things would be here of all places. Surely if the monsters that his father summoned were looking to pester him or even attempt to kill him they would be here by the dozens if not hundreds. Still, a trophy was a trophy and how wonderful would that head look once properly stuffed and prepared and how lovely the fur would look as a new coat or perhaps as a rug.

With sword in hand, or rather with the sheath in hand as the magical blade hovered next to him like a dog awaiting its masters orders, Alucard walked to the front doors of the castle and was momentarily perplexed by the lack of a massive beast or even the hint of one in the treeline. He did catch its scent however, definitely identified it as a demon along with two others totally three that lurked in those woods, accompanied by a single human, their scent faint in the storm and their heartbeat surprisingly slow.

Just as he was about to return inside however his sharp eyes caught some movement in the distance. The trees had been disturbed by a large form that finally settled and stayed put for the few moments Alucard stood waiting for the snarling beast to approach. When he was sure it had somehow grew some wit and wouldn't be stupid enough to attack him or was satisfied with its measly meal of a single human, Alucard went back inside and returned to his study, brushing off the slight chill of the cold rainy night and resumed his reading as he had a long life of technical immortality to look forward to as while he could be killed he wasn't going to make it such an easy task nor would ever let his guard down to let such a thing be possible again.

His body had been vaguely aware of the passage of time and he did see that the sun had risen and he started feeling a hint of fatigue. "Best get something to eat," Alucard told himself, though in the back of his throat there was the deeper voice he used when speaking for the little puppet he made of Trevor. Or perhaps there was Sypha's accent in those words somewhere.

Oh how his thoughts ran away once those two came to mind. He had thought so much of killing any and all that dared to even approach the steps of his home but what to do with those two in particular? Foolish sentimental thoughts told him it would be immoral to kill them because of how much time they had spent together and how they had spoke of many nothings, joking around a campfire and sharing a meal that Trevor was surprised didn't consist of a single drop of human blood for the vampire, but oh how fitting it would be to display their corpses somewhere prominent where all could see and to finally be rid of their annoying existence.

No impossibly smart and superior to everyone Sypha Belnades to tell him he was wrong in so many words that she of course knew because of her status as a Speaker and their ways of memorizing all sorts of history and legends and knowledge and treating him like an angry child.

No stupid drunk Trevor Belmont to disturb him with drunken ramblings and unfunny jokes all while acting he was superior because he was a monster-killing Belmont and thus a saviour of the stupid and helpless fools that orphaned him even if he didn't admit it while drowning himself in alcohol.

And now that he had access to the Belmont hold and their collection of weaponry and magic stored within its walls, he found a busy future ahead of him while trying to figure out how undo Sypha's destruction and get the castle moving once more, should he decide on moving as he had no real destination in mind and for the time being at least as he had special plans for the two who had long left and abandoned him here alone to dwell deeper and deeper and deeper still into grief and madness and hatred.

His body moved on its own while his thoughts had wandered, idly recognizing that he was preparing some sort of meal. The two of those ever pesky thorns in his sides had only come to him looking for something and the moment he outlived his immediate usefulness of apparently saving humanity from his father he was made the watchdog of the ruined estate which he had so painstakingly been repairing since being confined this hell he called home.

No, he came to realize, as he wondered where oh where those puppets he made had gone off to and if they were still where oh where he left them, that he did not care for them anymore. As much as they used him he used them and now that they have outlived their usefulness to him, he can dispose of them when they inevitably come crawling back to milk more usefulness from his being when they find time between whatever they called their apparent heroic journey of ridding the world of evil. He did not care for those pesky two and no amount of equally pesky sentimental emotions would ever convince him otherwise as he would be more than happy to add them to the path of bones he so happily pictured.

No, he thought again while eating, slowly savoring each bite, recognizing the scents, and washing down the tastes with a generous amount of wine. They were a special case. Slitting their throats and impaling them would be too merciful in comparison and so they needed a more befitting punishment that would show them just how much pain Alucard has endured since that fateful day and all the grief he still endured in the present.

Perhaps he'd make them suffer gruesome torture, whittling their wills to ash and dust and further down until they beg for death only for Alucard to deny them such a comfort. He would have to take care not to kill them in the process of course, as he wanted to see the light of hope fade from their eyes as the crushing realization of their error began to come to light with a righteous judgement that no amount of apologies and prayers can save them from.

He wondered, why he wondered such a thought he wondered more, if his dear mother, whose death was the tragic beginning of this tale of woe and fall from some fragmented grace, would think of all of this. She always believed that her kind, humans that is, would one day awake from their superstitious nightmares and open their eyes to an enlightened age where even the most deadly of illness and injury can be cured with an advanced version of the medicine they already knew and trusted.

And yet he felt hot tears of the deepest rage and lamenting sorrows welling in his eyes as he knew that no matter how enlightened humanity will become they would always cling to their superstitions in the comforting dark of ignorance and stubbornly deny deny deny and destroy anything that challenged their thoughts in the vain hope that they were right to do so because the very thought of they themselves being the deceitful evil they so valiantly thought they were banishing from their realm was too great a burden for their feeble and delicate minds.

A rustling caught his attention now. He had been outside, doing a bit of foraging for dinner and was aware of the faint scent of humanity lingering somewhere deep within the forest, but another scent was far closer. Demonic in nature, its breaths tiny and excited as it came closer. His sword was at his side, sheathed and waiting for his command, but he focused on that other presence and finding there was actually two.

Too small, he thought. His vampiric instincts told him these two tiny things that were attempting to stalk him were not worth the energy and yet the fact these things had the scent of demons unnerved his human half.

"I know you're there." He called out, hearing their sharp breaths. "Either come out and die or leave at once."

Their movements were easy and clear to see. The two of them were hiding and neither of them were experts though their wavering patience continued to unnerve that small part of him.

Not patience, he thought, now realizing he was hearing their shaking breaths. Hesitation. Demons that showed fear, perhaps there was something resembling intelligence in their little heads.

They moved again and this time Alucard can see their forms. The two small figures were both nearly identical to humans in appearance despite their scents. One was able to pass more easily as a delicate child they looked to be; healthy light olive complexion, muddy red hair, and bright blue-gray eyes that they shared with the figure next to them, far more noticeable as they were stark white from head to toe, at which point he realized neither of them wore shoes, though their attire were well cared for with nary a tear or stitch out of place.

"I will not repeat myself." Alucard narrowed his eyes, their demonic stench stinging now and their human appearance angering him. "Leave this place at once."

One of them, the one with muddy red hair, poked its head from the bush they hid behind and stared at Alucard for too long a moment before sticking its tongue out at him.

Well then, Alucard thought, feeling that one of his eyebrows had twitched ever so slightly. He did give them a warning. Perhaps he would be kind just this once and give them one last chance.

He raised the sheathed sword and took a step forward. That made the two dash away with little care to where they were stepping, kicking up dirt and twigs and their tiny breaths barely managing the tiniest yelps. Again, his vampire half informed him that they were not worth the trouble and he listened, half wondering when he'd expect to find their rotting corpses being picked clean by scavengers.

"Little pests." Alucard sighed and kept at his work. There was no shortage of fresh food around, all he had to do was go looking in the right places. Certain berries were in season, fish were plenty, game could also provide but one deer was more than enough for him and he did not care much to store what he did not use so he let them be. Besides, the castle had food as well and Alucard considered himself to be quite knowledgeable in agriculture.

Still, what were two children doing in the forest all alone? They didn't smell completely human, that much was certain. There was a chance that they were magically native beings of the forest, he remembered hearing about such things but in all the time he had been here he had yet to encounter a single one and the fact they smelled of unholy monsters was enough to support that. Even more so their stupid choice of disguise. Human children are not normally alone, and if they were it was not for long, as an adult, more often than not a parent, was close by.

However, there was a human in these woods, he can faintly smell their scent despite the storm washing the proverbial slate clean. There was also a manticore wandering around for some odd reason that had yet to leave or kill that single human.

Far off in the distance, a trumpeting sort of sound rattled the area and made Alucard grow further annoyed. "Going to fucking kill it." Alucard hissed as he heard what he knew to be the manticore's call. "Kill it and turn it into a rug." And display its skull somewhere, either on the front steps, the entrance hall, or his study, whichever he fancied more.

The rest of the day, thankfully, went by without much incident. Those two oddities had lingered around him for a while before getting bored and running off without disturbing or following him into the castle, though he was offhandedly thinking that perhaps he could use them to take care of the castle while he was busy. Cleaning wasn't much of a chore but even the time he spent cleaning what was not broken or melted could be spent repairing what was broken and melted or catching up on his new library of magical readings.

Although, he huffed as he tried to read the Belmont's collection but found that while his eyes glided over the words on the page he was not properly reading them, having demons, even in their ridiculous form, at his beck and call would prove ever useful. How hard could it be to teach a demon to do house chores? Certainly not too difficult if even those baby-eating savage beasts can delicately decorate a city with entrails and limbs.

"Well someone has to feed it and bathe it and take it for walks and I'm certainly not going to do any of those things," Alucard's voice was low and gruff as he imitated Trevor. "I'm too drunk to even take care of myself!"

With a heavy sigh the lord of the castle leaned back into his chair, half acknowledging the setting sun. He saw the manticore moving among the trees again, stopping in the same spot it had last night and settling down in whatever burrow it most likely had created for itself, again perplexing Alucard for a moment. Could demons even settle down in one spot? Perhaps the bigger ones once they chased the smaller and more annoying impish fiends but what good would that do? Any human would be killed the instant it was dumb enough to even approach, so it couldn't be there for food unless it somehow fancied wild game instead of human flesh which went against its namesake as a man eater.

No matter, he thought. The manticore would leave soon enough once it stopped being a picky child and ate such easy prey, those little freaks of nature would be out of his hair, and if that human was somehow able to evade the manticore then they too can have the right mind to keep moving and not come anywhere near him.

What was he thinking, he thought as the scents lingered in the air. Of course they would come near him. The castle was the only unnatural structure for miles and of course the one place a terrified human scared shitless would think to look for shelter because obviously a building so intricate like this would provide some protection from the raging wave of monsters.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, still smelling the scent of human. "Come on," he sighed. "Leave."

But his voice was unanswered. He was stuck smelling that living stench alongside the faintest but growing whiff of rot from the corpses on his front steps, and the longer those vile odors were around the deeper his hatred of humanity became.


	2. Chapter 2

The mind was a fickle thing, as even the strongest of them can be bent and broken with ease when just the right strings of the heart are played. A few well placed plucks can convince a town an enemy laid hidden within their midst, a pluck or two more can further have the scared peasants believe that the enemy they so feared was one of their own that had played them for fools. But such simple melodies were but child's play to a master musician of the heart of man. Silver tongues whispered lies as sweet as honey and nimble hands that control all the hidden strings that moved the world.

Such twisted and sadistic unseen masters were controlling Alucard's actions each time he decided to be awake. He made more food than he wanted, he spoke to no one when his words were not for himself, and his eyes always moved to an empty space as if he expected to see someone there.

"Fucking-" Alucard hissed to himself, seeing that he made two more dishes of lunch and had little idea of where to dispose of the surplus of food. "The crows shall feast like kings once more," he sighed and sat down to eat, pushing the two extra dishes to the side for later as he had developed a rather unseemly habit of feeding the unwanted meals to the nearby wildlife. This habit had also attracted the unwanted attention of a certain pair of demonic monstrosities that fancied themselves human children and were quite convincing if not for Alucard's keen sense of smell taking notice of their distinctly unholy stench.

Much to the vampire's newfound disgust of humans, demons, and demons that pretend to be humans, he found himself growing accustomed to their presence during his near daily foraging for food. They pestered him at a distance and tested how close they can come before his sword begun to move, and at the first hint of such change the two scattered further into the woods away from him, not that it would matter as Alucard could easily chase them or even kill them without too much trouble but his sense of smell can still detect another demonic presence in the area and despite his flights of fancy of having the bodies of demons displayed upon the castle as well in such way as to not appear that he had simply used their blood to clumsily paint the walls, he was not in the mood to do any sort of fighting and his sword still reeked of human blood no matter how much he cleaned it.

He had made his disgust no secret and repeatedly told them over and over again to leave him be and they did not listen, stubborn as the children they pretended to be, instead taking his words as a challenge to annoy him with renewed vigor.

"Of course they're here." He heard the tell-tale rustling of leaves and scuffing of dirt under the tiniest of feet as he ate, seeing that they had arrived just before he even started eating to come yowl their little heads as if tempting him to decapitate them then and there.

Another mistake he had made and one that still ate at his mind with fury was the mistake of feeding the little hellspawns when the crows were not available. At first he tossed them fish in the hopes that it would appease their appetites and curiosity, seeing small hints of their true demonic nature when their eyes had lost their human-like round pupils that were replaced with the thinnest slits of a cat's gaze and their teeth grew a certain sharpness to match the animalistic sounds of delight they made when he tossed the fruits of the river their way.

The lord of the castle soon realized his mistake when they appeared more and more, his senses detecting them at a certain distance until he made certain movements that signaled to them that he was in possession of food, or in the odd case of two days ago when he had a length of rope that he left strung up in a tree in an attempt to catch a rabbit while busy with other matters only to find that the string had frayed and smelled heavily of rabbit entrails and demon breath. Still, they left him to his own devices when he gave them food, so he tossed what he could spare be it in game or cooked meals. One day, a fish for each of them that they ate greedily. The next, when he realized his mistake but still repeated by will of the unseen masters of the strings of his heart, the larger goose he had caught, keeping the smaller for himself as it had less meat and thus hopefully less to make but of course just enough for his needs and only his needs.

"Best get this over with," Alucard sighed again and grabbed the two spare meals, a light but filling and delicious roasted duck if he had to judge such things, and headed outside to where the yowls of the disguised demons grew louder with his appearance, running in circles and if their appearance the previous day had been any indication they would do this until they made themselves nearly faint in exhaustion. In truth he knew there were words in those near ear piercing screeches but held such little opinion of what they had to say if anything and only heard noises with no rhyme or reason to their cacophonous duet. "Yes, I'm here. Shut up."

At his command, a delightful thing in some part of his mind, the two shut their mouths and replaced their yowls with something akin to silence, standing a few feet away from him and looking at him with anticipation.

"Sit." He commanded again and the two sat down, the one in guise of a female child taking a moment to adjust the fabric of her skirt as she sat while the other that appeared as a male child let himself tumble to the floor and picked himself up into a seated position from there. He stepped forward and ignoring their restlessness he placed the cooled but still slightly warm meals in front of them. "Go on. You can eat."

The boy grabbed the roast duck and ate with as if he were a starving animal while the girl, also without manners but more tempered than her male counterpart, ate delicately with smaller and slower bites, holding the duck in one hand while sampling the other parts of the meal that the boy was neglecting.

She made more noise, less deafening thankfully, and it took a moment for Alucard to realize that she had asked him a question.

"What was that?" He looked at her.

"Aren't you hungry?" She said again, looking up at him and smacking her kin's hand away from her plate.

"I was about to enjoy my meal before you two came along and started screaming so loud the dead could hear it." Alucard scoffed at her, his eyes glancing at the general direction of where a certain other pair, more dead and debatablely more human than the pair before him, were impaled on sticks just as his father had done to his enemies.

The girl pouted and ripped a piece of the duck and held it out towards him, the scent enough to make any lesser man accept the sliver of charity without forethought.

Alucard looked at it and ever so slightly narrowed his eyes, which was not missed by the demon.

"Here." She said and gestured again for him to take it, a smile upon her face.

He scowled now, his eyebrows furrowing in anger as he turned around and stepped back inside, hearing the two whisper to each other and not caring to listen once more, only hearing low and pathetic mewling. Looking back at the table he saw where his plate still sat untouched and now just as warm as that of the demons.

How incredibly idiotic, he thought to himself. That the demons, most likely the remaining remnants of his father's summoned beasts from the depths of hell that lingered despite their summoner's death and most likely anchored to the realm by their one and only order to venture across Wallachia and leave no human alive in their path, were eating better than he, Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes.

Still, the appearance of the table with only his plate sitting at its placement all by its lonesome just as he wished to be be in solitude and looked downright pathetic and that was exactly how his own heart was being played by the unseen musician, a lonely thing to be pitied as it only had but one use in its fleeting life. But as where the roasted duck spoils the vampire continues in its prime; stronger than the most respected and decorated athlete and more knowledgeable than a dozen of the most traveled and learned scholars.

Still, why did he listen to such an aria of sorrow and why did he listen to the words of monsters that by all accounts and by all rights should not be any more intelligent than a feral dog?

He looked outside and saw the two were still eating, both slowly now and it was then he realized another thing. Today, he had given them the plates along with their meals, as opposed to the days before when he tossed the newly christened scraps towards them and had a similar tiny delight in seeing them catch the food in the air and had disappointment in his eyes should they fail to catch it and let it fall.

"You do know you need to get the plates back?" His voice had a false accent and higher pitch, mimicking a certain Speaker. "Why? They can keep them for all I care." He responded to the thin air. "Is the angry teenager throwing a tantrum now? Is that it? Do you really not want to wash your plates so badly that you would let a pair of monsters take them?" Once again with the higher tone.

With a growl, Alucard grabbed his plate and headed back outside, grumbling about Sypha and how she was not as smart as she claimed to be just because of her flawless memorization of thousands of stories as per Speaker customs. How they had time to memorize such tales and knowledge was both a testament to human determination to record history, despite the unfortunate circumstance should all Speakers be killed and all their collected knowledge be lost with them for they only memorized such things in oral tradition, and determination to stave off boredom, a task Alucard himself was finding harder and harder despite the new abundance of magical knowledge.

The two demons looked up at him both in curiosity as in line with their act in playing children and in fear as he had threatened them on more than one occasion, and looked at each other as if wordlessly asking the other for answers.

Alucard said nothing as he ate, using a knife and fork as dictated by proper table manners and not with his hands such as the uncultured pair that sat with him that looked at the utensils with the same mixture of conflicting but similar emotions with which they looked at him.

When all the food was eaten, and after convincing the male demon to eat his damned vegetables and stop being such a picky little shit of a child, Alucard gathered the plates as the two made way away and into the depths of the forest to wherever they call a burrow of a home, where they revealed their true demonic forms of which Alucard only had a faint idea of.

The girl jumped up a tree, her form unraveling in wind just as Alucard's did when he himself was in the mood to not be human, and with her new form she clawed at it and climbed to a relatively low branch and shook as if she were a dog that climbed out a lake, also revealing that her eerie pale appearance was not a fault of stupidity but a limitation as in demon form she was snow white. Her other half was much the same, though it seemed the demon was quite young as it had yet to grow any hint of a mane as indicated by what type of monster they were.

Manticores.

The body of a lion and though their faces were not of humans but also of lions they still had the distinct three rows of teeth their kind was known for, at their backs there were a pair of bat-like wings, seemingly not ready for use of flight. At their heads they had the tiniest of pointed edges of horns growing in but were blunt, and much in the same way they did not have the tails of scorpions but the barbed tail of a porcupine if the porcupine had yet to grow in their barbs that were also venomous.

Why they revealed themselves now he did not know, but it gave much more context to what he had kept hearing when he knew they were around but could not see them. Their feet would, at times, seemingly double. Instead of two pairs of clumsy human feet he would hear four pairs of soft padded paws. Instead of the nonsense of the voices of children he would hear animals not of the forest, specifically the high pitched screaming of what sounded like cats, a noise he was vaguely familiar with as humans often kept them to catch mice and rats and the ones with no masters would fight each other in the streets, something he would hear more often in the wee hours of dawn and the waning hours of dusk.

The snow white manticore looked back at him and from her perch she changed her form again, standing delicately on the branch.

"Um," she mewled, and Alucard again heard a proper word as proper as such a sound could be counted. "Thank you." She nodded at him, changing forms again and leaping away, following the impatient call of her kin that had already ventured back into the depths of the forest.

It was then Alucard wondered what the unseen musician was playing now, what show the puppeteer was planning for him, and what honey sweet words he'd be told to convince him to try again for companionship, to find true company to talk to instead of impersonating the voices of a Belmont and a Speaker.

As he washed the plates and dried them and put them back to their proper spots, he wondered again why he chose to hear those words instead of the usual noise he associated with the two. Why did he choose then and there to listen, and why did they choose to reveal their demonic forms to him at that moment. Perhaps they gained some trust in him, after all if they were alone in these woods, which he doubted as he knew a full grown beast of rows of teeth and venomous barbs lay waiting in those trees that had still yet to kill the almost unmoving but still very alive human that had also been in the area, then Alucard could be the only one to provide them food, or at least provide them one meal.

"No." He told himself as he walked back to his study, sword still sheathed and still fastened at his side and awaiting his command. "Not again." He opened the door and the study that now doubly functioned as a bedroom to him appeared to be cast in a much darker shadow than usual. "Never again."

He felt tears but wiped them away as he'd cried enough tears for one lifetime as declared by himself and despite being utterly alone in the castle as he so wished he would not dare show such weakness, even to himself. No more tears, no more regret, no more irrational emotional attachments to those ungrateful vermin.

And yet despite insisting to himself that he would never let the unseen musician play such melodies upon him the lithe and nimble fingers of this invisible foe still plucked away at him, this time a melody of discord that brought with it pain and burning all throughout his body as memories swarmed his mind.

He never lied to them. Never. Not once did he lie. The castle was broken and could not move as it once could before, that was the truth. His father disliked magic and magical weapons in favor of the sciences, that was also the truth. So why, why why why he asked himself in vain, did they betray him? The touch of those two aspiring vampire hunters that he had invited into his home returned to his body and burned at wounds he was still nursing from the restraints they placed upon him.

"They're dead now." He managed to growl against the lump in his throat. "They're dead." The scent of their blood, hearing their hearts beat fast in fear, only to slow as they bled out, to finally stop and never to move again. "They're dead." He repeated, holding his head in his hands, as if hearing those words over and over would somehow ease his heart. "They're dead."

By his own hand, they were dead.

By his own hand, he is alone.

"They're dead."

Whether this mantra had relieved his troubled mind or not was not truly known, but at some point he stopped he was able to focus once more at the world around him, the burning sensation lessening more and more, the melody of his being slowing into near silence.

For now, he can resume his studies and for now he can be at some sort of peace in his newfound solitude.

So he questioned again why he felt so strongly about those manticores.

A troubling thought indeed, as certainly if these three manticores were nearby then the rest of the night hoard would be here soon as well.

"Ugh," Alucard groaned, finding that he was unable to read the words properly. "Why did you have to feed them you idiot?"

Why indeed.

"I told you, someone has to feed the damn things," his voice once again gained the low tone of the Belmont. "And I'm not doing it. You brought this upon yourself."

His hand threw the book towards the shelf where the puppets had been sitting quietly, also asking himself when he had even moved them in the first place.

"Shut up Trevor." Alucard hissed. "I should have killed you when I had the chance."

The night went on much like this, having skipped dinner as he found he had no appetite in favor of trying to read the magical text within the Belmont hold and surprised to find that within the library of spells and rituals and incantations and mystical brews were also personal diaries of plenty of many Belmonts that weren't named Trevor.

"Why the fuck am I still reading this?" Alucard asked himself as he was reading the diary of who may have been an aunt of the drunkard.


	3. Chapter 3

If Alucard did not know his parents' sciences or even the superstitions of the common folk he would say it was already summer but if he could be called anything it would be educated and he knew of the seasons, how they came and went and the tell-tale signs of their transitioning based on the movements of the sun, the moon, the stars, and other such wonderful mathematical calculations, and judging by these calculations he could tell that spring had yet to grow into summer but that would not be true for long despite the pleasantly warm weather that grew warmer every so often. The summer solstice, the longest day and shortest night, had been fast approaching and that would mean another season of solitude and another step closer to madness.

Well, not entirely so as despite making his disgust no secret and constant repetitions of wanting to be alone, the two manticore children had only grown even more bold in their pestering. They had somehow got it in their little minds that he would not kill them despite all his threats and Alucard had no one but himself to blame for that.

Speaking of the two manticores, they had not made an appearance for some time, three days and soon it would be four. At first he believed it to be a good omen, that he can finally be in complete solitude.

The first day, a few crows were able to enjoy the extra meals Alucard still prepared without the manticores scaring them away with their otherwordly and monstrous presence. That day, the lord of the castle found that his studying went much smoother without having to worry about entertaining the pair of demons, and he had actually been able to learn a bit more of the history of the Belmont clan, seeing their knowledge of magic increase and, through another diary left behind, a day by day account of how the clan was viewed by the public.

On the second day Alucard had become aware of a growing urgency in the forest. Animals that once paid him little mind, if at all, now ran at the slightest movement that was not their own, their senses catching wind of him long after he caught wind of them. Even the crows kept far away from him despite their charming patience not too long ago.

Now on the evening of the third day, Alucard ventured into the forest and followed his instinct, the heartbeat of would-be prey gnawing at him each step of the way. Of course he might not kill the human that had somehow survived this long in the same forest as three manticores and an incredibly uncaring vampire, but he could at least see, from afar, what kept them here with the intent of shooing them off with a less empty threat of death.

The full grown manticore had yet to make a proper appearance to Alucard and as much as he would like to keep it that way, its offpsring had been making nuisances of themselves while the sire had not been one in of itself until it decided to roar every so often.

Alucard was getting closer to the human and had been able to catch their scent proper, recognizing the smell of a brewing storm mixed with cooking meat, burnt wood, and sweat. The scent of the manticore had grown as well, smelling faintly of sand and of blood both freshly spilled and dried, and to top off the growing scent of demon were the two manticore children.

"So this is where they have settled," Alucard found himself enraged with the audacity of the demons that had made the land surrounding his home their own without his consideration. He narrowed his eyes and caught the slightest movement in the distance, most notably he had seen the snow white demon, a mere speck in the horizon to anyone else of lesser senses but a clear form to him. He had only seen the demon for a moment before it ducked into a mass of earth and disappeared. "There they are," he mused lightly as he made a step forward to continue his reconnaissance.

His movements were halted by the sound of a low and rumbling growl in the same direction he had set to move towards, undoubtedly being noticed and now being threatened to not even think of going forward.

Trevor would have hesitated if only for a moment, weighing his options of either facing the monster he was destined to kill or die trying head on or going the other way and letting the demon have free reign due to his apathy. Sypha on the other hand, now overtaken with the hope and valor that overtakes all who believe themselves to be heroes, would have dared to go forward, spells prepared and one flick of her fingers away from being fully cast upon the beast.

Alucard was neither a Belmont, drunken or otherwise, nor was he a Speaker, head full of stories and legends. Alucard was himself a monster, a vampire, a creature of the night, and some part of him wanted to greet a fellow monster, but his better judgement insisted on either killing the trespasser that had overstayed its uninvited and unwanted welcome or chase it away, and it was the latter option that he had decided to follow when he continued forward despite his own presence being unwelcomed.

He found a high vantage point that had a better view of the little clearing that he had spotted the young manticores earlier. Indeed, the demons had prepared a den within a hillside, clearly dug out with the powerful claws of the adult manticore as evident by the claw marks and the piles of dirt that were scattered around and scattered haphazardly further as though the children had decided to play with it. From this height Alucard could not see within the den but from this distance the scent of the human could not be any more overwhelming and the irregularity of their heartbeat became more apparent as not one but of two within the same being. The human was pregnant, new life growing and ready to arrive soon.

And it was here that Alucard had to question just what in the name of heaven, hell, and all in between had compelled the manticore to not eat the human at any point in time that the human had been in its den and in such a vulnerable state such as pregnancy.

Such questions were for a later time however as from within the den he could hear voices, two of which he recognized as the manticore children, one that held the same low and rumbling tone he had associated with the adult demon, and the fourth voice, that of a woman, spoke with strain but maintained a steady breath nonetheless, and furthermore none of their words escaped his senses.

The adult manticore and the human woman argued with hushed words, surprising Alucard as he thought for sure the former would only speak in nonsensical roars and growls. More reassurances from the woman that she, knowing the limits of her human form better than any other, would be well, though the manticore seemed unconvinced. She insisted once more and that had been the end of there were no other sounds of argument; truly women were a force to be reckoned with in the matter of words. Following her reassurances there was a silence and Alucard had figured he'd heard enough and decided to move before the unseen masters of his heart made his decisions for him.

"I'll be back."

The sound of footsteps followed, heavy and hurried, catching Alucard's attention to stay just a moment longer as after all, if he should find himself dueling the beast he would rather know what the beast looked like now than to be surprised and caught off guard.

From the den a human man stepped out, appearing as an older version of the young male manticore, from the complexion to the eyes and the hair, though the adult manticore's hair was longer and unkept, barely held back with a short length of cord. The figure before him wore plain clothes, and the demonic stench coming off of him had been near overwhelmingly horrid and Alucard wondered if he were truly the only one that could recognize such a stench due to his higher senses and how the Belmonts had gone so long before figuring out other identifiable traits of the monsters they hunt.

Again, Alucard had concluded he'd seen enough when the figure before him that had once been standing still with eyes fixated on the forest had now moved to look at him with an unsettling quickness, his expression almost indiscernable if not for the unmistakable murderous intent surrounding him and the cat-like pupils that were unmoving in their gaze.

"You." The manticore spoke and turned his body to better face Alucard.

Alucard could see the manticore's movements and jumped back just as the manticore jumped upwards and forwards towards him, landing in the tree where the vampire had just stood, his gaze still unmoving.

"What are you doing here." Under the manticore's breath, which smelled of fish and venison, there in laid an unspoken threat that changed his spoken words from a question to a statement.

"I could say the same to you." The lord of the castle narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps you are either blind or stupid to not see the giant castle in the distance."

"I have seen it," the manticore replied, the two moving once again, the manticore forward and Alucard moving to one side and silently proud of himself to see a hint more of frustration in the manticore when it saw that Alucard moved in such a way that, should they continue, would mean circling around the den. "I am neither of those things."

"How vain of you," Alucard now engaged action and moved forward, forcing the manticore back at such an angle that it now stood farther from the den than Alucard. "You who had thought that it would be wise to build a den for your brood here, in the shadow of a monster much greater than yourself." He leapt forward once more, putting more distance between the manticore and his den and reveling in the look on the demon's face, not that the expression had drastically changed but the tiniest tilt of the head had been all the vampire needed to see. "You are both. It is only my dwindling kindness that allowed you to live as long as you have."

The manticore's head raised lightly in response, a sign that the monster had been learning Alucard's movements as he had been learning that of the monster's during their odd dance of threats and leaps.

"You are Goldy." The manticore spoke, his voice to the untrained ear unchanging from before but to Alucard the amusement in the words it spoke was clear as a glistening crystal prism.

"Well you learn fast." Alucard now held the sheath of his sword steady as the blade released itself and swung in preparation for attack at the title. The young manticores had taken to calling him Goldy as he would rather be damned further into Hell than tell those two little monstrosities either his alias that which he had grown accustomed to associating with himself nor the name his mother had given him, and despite all of his grievances with that gaudy and childish title he still responded to it when he cared to listen to their words.

One moved back and one moved forth, one away and one closer, they leapt from tree to tree, to the ground and back upwards to any free branch, the manticore doing annoyingly well in dodging the slashes and stabs of the magical blade.

"You have given my children food." The manticore said matter of factly as they moved to and fro.

"Much to my disgust and against better judgement." Alucard hissed as he had felt some worry for their absence the longer they had not appeared around the castle or in his foraging.

"I have learned that such a generosity is to be repaid," the manticore now moved on the offense, changing his nails to long claws and with this slight change he moved a slight bit faster as if he had been purposely limiting himself to the conditions of his human appearance.

"And what does a demon from the pits of Hell gain from caring for such things?" Alucard asked with his own amusement.

Despite the both of them coordinating their movements to convince the other to move in such way that gave themselves the advantage, Alucard had been on the defense now and stood with his back to the castle and the den in front of him with the manticore in his way.

"The same thing your father gained," the manticore spoke with such sureness in his voice that he might as well have said either of the names Vlad Tepes or Dracula or worse the name of his departed mother and it was to that end had Alucard become so infuriated with the stupid beast and aimed for its throat with none of the mercy he had so far been showing.

The blade, at first, seemed to have aimed true but the monster's throat did not burst into a fountain of blood as he had anticipated but instead the manticore had dodged by the width of the thinnest hair as only a small trickle of blood ran down its neck.

A sound of stupidity came from the manticore, some sort of question perhaps, but Alucard chose not to listen and vowed to kill it as he had vowed days before, and already he planned to turn its skin into a rug and its head shall be mounted in the entrance hall, its claws and teeth and venomous barbs repurposed for the vampire's own needs as there would be no use in letting such valuable things rot away.

Perhaps the manticore had caught on that the vampire was now aiming to kill as now its teeth now had a second row to their bite and were now all completely sharp. The eyes of the manticore also became more monstrous in addition to the claws and maw, and Alucard had prepared himself for the appearance of either the tail of venomous barbs or the breath of fire as he continued the attack.

The breath of fire came first, which Alucard not only did away with using one well timed and precise swing of his sword but used as a diversion as who could anticipate their opponent running head first into the flames instead of literally any other direction.

He gripped his blade proper now as its strike held only so much power as it moved by its own weight but with his strength behind it the manticore would not last long, and Alucard had to admit he himself did not expect the manticore to grab the sword in its hand when it came within reach.

Here, Alucard found himself within a dangerous range of the beast, its mouth opening and the heat of flames began to lick his face as neither of them were looking to be the one to yield first.

"ADAM!"

The voice of the human woman shocked the both of them, and Alucard luckily could see her and her face twist from fury to panic to confusion and then settling on realization and recognition though Alucard himself had only been able to recognize her as the older visage of the young female manticore. How such genetics worked were a question for another day, as demons and humans were most likely not meant to mingle in such manners.

The manticore, ironically named after the supposed first man, pushed Alucard back and turned to the woman and children with his more human-like appearance, the teeth and claws disappearing in one swift movement as he jumped back as if to protect them should it be become necessary.

Alucard quelled his anger long enough to see the scene before him clearly. A manticore, a heavily pregnant woman, and two children that looked remarkably similar to each of them, and if the manticore's words were any indication they were an arguably blasphemous union that by all logic and accounts should not have been possible.

"Goldy!" The two children happily cheered at him but stepped back in confusion at their father's protective gesture.

He flourished his sword and pointed it at the whole clan of misfits, his anger resurfacing as he remembered what he had came here to do and all of the growing reasons to his decision.

"Listen once and listen well," he began to speak. "Leave this place and never return. Should you stay here, I will take it as a forfeit of your lives, and you will not be granted any more mercy than I have already foolishly shown."

The woman seemed to have been ill recently but was close to fully recovering, perhaps some form of cold if she did not have proper shelter during the storm, and despite her hoarse voice, the cough tickling her throat, and her unsteady stance, she looked at him with kind blue eyes.

"A thousand apologies, oh fearsome golden lord," she had a small laugh in her voice. "Are we to depart at once or shall you allow us a boon and agree to wait patiently for this stubborn babe of mine to be born?"

Alucard did not like her tone as she talked as if she knew him despite his own mind not recognizing her in any capacity. She had not been a random citizen of any of the towns or paths he, Sypha, and Trevor had passed on their quest to kill his father, as surely she would stand out among the crowd unless securely hiding under some form of robe and seeing that humans can discern a single oddity among themselves it was equally unlikely that she, her demon lover, and her half-breed children could pass through any town with little trouble especially if her children favored switching between their demon and human appearances. Even one glimpse of their changing features would be enough to have them killed or for a massacre to occur at the more than capable hands of the manticore and surely Alucard and his two former companions would be able to catch wind of such incidents.

And despite the fanciful thought that had occured to him, he had already decided that no other living being, human or demon, would step foot in the castle so long as he is the guardian of the estate.

"I'm not giving you free food and board if that is what you'll be asking next," Alucard sheathed his sword.

"Oh we are perfectly happy to fend for ourselves out here," the woman spoke again. "Though if you are offering it would be rude to decline."

That sparked another nerve and Alucard narrowed his eyes further. He looked to the manticore and spoke. "You, manticore-"

"Adam." It tried to correct.

"You made mention of feeling indebted to my so called generosity, correct?" Alucard saw it tilt its chin downward as if to nod. "You can start by telling your little bastards to leave me alone."

The manticore looked down to his two half-breed monsters, he nodded once more.

"And should the night hoard appear, do not expect me to come save you." He spoke to the woman with a glare, even more enraged by her knowing coy smile. "If I find even one claw mark on any surface of the castle, there will be hell to pay." With one more nod from each of the adults, Alucard took his leave and berated himself once more for his empty words, finding the castle untouched and as empty as he had left it and as empty as it shall be under his rule.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK SO-this chapter starts with a vivid nightmare(poor Alucard), but basically it's just him feeling scared, alone, and hurt in many MANY ways, but if you don't want to read all of that for any reason skip ahead to the line of these ~ bad boys. Oh and also some demon killing in this chapter but probably not what you're thinking, but there's still blood and stuff so...there's that.
> 
> Oh! One more thing! Thanks for the kudos!

His father laid dead. The castle, once beautiful and alive with the thoughts of home, now sat broken and still, never to move unless he can undo the damage of magical fire. But that would be for another day, for all the emotions he had been keeping inside to put on a brave face had finally released themselves in a stream of sorrow and tears. He could not hold it in any longer, and when he finally allowed himself to grieve the murder of his mother and the horridly long and devastating death of his father, at his own hands no less, Alucard felt...something. A weight had been lifted from his shoulder, the breath he did not know he had been holding finally came out in broken sobs, and perhaps now, in the eye of the storm where all is calm and still, he can show the two around, prepare for the battle with all of his father's subordinates and all of the demons that were left to wander the land.

"Are you crying?" Trevor's voice asked and with it there was disbelief, as if he could not believe the sight before him.

Alucard looked up and saw that the Belmont he had grown some familiarity and even camaraderie with looked down at him with disgust and seeing such an expression, from a Belmont no less and one he had come to consider an ally, filled him with panic. "Trevor, I-"

"He's a child," Sypha appeared from behind Trevor, smiling. "That's all he can do you know." Her voice held such a cutting sneer despite being as cheerful as he knew it. "Just a little child pretending to be an adult."

"Didn't know monster bastards could cry," Trevor turned and began to walk away and down the hallway.

"No-!" Alucard stood, wiping his face. "Come, there's so much I want to show y-"

Hands gripped his wrists from behind, then grabbing his shoulders, his hair, even his neck, and pulling him back as he helplessly watched Trevor and Sypha walk into the darkness never to be seen again. The hands kept pulling at him and despite his inhuman strength he could not free himself of their perverse wandering and groping grasps, ridding him of his clothes and throwing him onto the bed where they held him down.

"You lied."

"No." Alucard stared in wide eyed horror at the two looming over him, their throats slashed and bloodied and their eyes gray and glassy with death. "No, no! I never-!"

Those damned metal binds wrapped around him again, digging and burning into his skin with more ferocity than he remembered, the hands multiplying and doing so many things to him that he could not get away no matter how much he tried.

"Stop!"

He tried in vain to pull himself up and out of the burning chains, only for their hands to push him back down and continue their assault. His eyes watered, his skin nearly on fire with their touch, his voice hoarse from screaming. Some of the hands pulled his arms back, nearly fearing they would snap them clean off, wrapping more binding around his wrists and hoisting him upward.

"Please...stop." He could not bear this ordeal. The words they spoke, the things they did while he laid helpless. What new torture awaited him now, he fearfully thought. "Please...."

"Adrian..."

A new rush of fear crept into his heart.

Slowly, hesitantly, not wanting to think the worst, he looked up and saw his mother, the sweet angel that had put up with his father and with him, smiling gently.

"Mother-"

She began laughing, her voice echoing loudly and her face twisting into something that could not be recognizable as Lisa Tepes of Lupu.

He blinked and Sypha stood there, laughing like mad at him, Trevor standing beside her with a large mug of what could only be assumed to be some form of most likely cheap beer.

"Did you-hahahaha! Did you hear him? He-hahaha!-he called me-!" Sypha just could not hold herself together long enough to form coherent sentences.

Trevor finally stopping taking the longest sip of beer in the history of alcohol and looked at Alucard with a smug smirk plastered on his face. "Crying about your dead mom again you little bitch?"

Alucard tried to lunge forward, held back by the deepening burn of the restraints, now seeing the little puppets circling him, laughing at him as well. "I'll kill you! When I see you again, I'll bleed you dry and end your whole lineage!"

Another sip, another condescending expression on the Belmont's face. "He may not be a witch but let's burn him all the same. Bet his whore mother is missing him in Hell." Trevor took a few steps forward and splashed some of the contents of the mug onto Alucard's face and indeed the smell and taste of cheap beer was what hit the vampire and as he looked down he saw now that were at his feet were stacks upon stacks upon many stacks of flammable looking wood.

"No-please no-!" Alucard could not decide if he should furious with the two or plead for his life. "I helped you! I killed my own father-!"

The look on Trevor's face spoke of even more disgust and even a glaring hint of disappointment.

"Oh it's nothing personal. I'm a monster hunter, you're a half-undead abomination against God born of a stupid bitch and a giant blood sucking rat that should have died centuries ago." Trevor turned away, walking with that confident gait of a job well done with one more long sip of beer for the road and letting Sypha have a clear path for her magic. "It's just business as usual." With one flick of her fingers, the wood had set ablaze with no time to wait and the pain started once more. The fire began to consume him from the bottom up and no one would save him.

"Liar."

"Liar."

"Liar."

"Murderer."

~~~~~~~

Alucard woke with a start, his face stuck to a page in a book that ripped off with him as he sat up in a cold sweat, his heart beating fast and feeling as though it was about to burst from his chest. He snatched the page from his face, not even bothering to inspect the damage, shaking with such intensity that he doubted he could stand upright.

"I never lied." He hissed. "Never. Not once did I lie-" his voice lost itself and he found tears had appeared once more on his face. "I did not lie-!"

He threw all that had been on the desk to the side, a wine glass breaking, the book exploding into pages, and what was left a quick meal of roasted vegetables splattered against the wall, though one item did survive only to be lost to the great outdoors as it had been at just the right angle to be thrown into the window, breaking the glass and whatever the item was bounced once on some structure of the castle before dropping to the ground below.

Regaining some composure, the lord of the castle sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"That was my sword, wasn't it?" He asked, seeing the other items that he tossed away and indeed seeing some supplies that he used to clean the blade; the shards of a bottle along with its contents that were now becoming stains upon the wall and floor, a cloth that survived due to being a soft material, and the sheath itself. "Throwing a tantrum now, are you?" He hissed to himself and looked out the window, seeing that the only light was that of the last full moon of spring before summer would awaken, and sure enough down the incredible height and there on the ground the tiniest glimmer of the blade shined. "God damn everything."

Clearing the rest of the glass, adding the task of repairing the window to the long list of things to do around the castle, Alucard stepped out and prepared to call the blade when his vision had betrayed him, seeing the great fire from his dream that threatened to consume him. He pressed his back against the wall, his breath quickening with the memory of that dream and how his body reacted of its own accord.

"No," Alucard shook his head. "None of that. No more." He vowed to himself and looked down, seeing the blade lying there and finding he could not simply call it back. "No more of that ever again."

He looked again, taking in how high he stood from the ground and how even he, with all his strength and grace, could emerge from a fall at this height with injury. Still, he took the leap and managed to land with little trouble a few steps away from where the blade had fallen. Alucard picked it up and inspected it, relieved to see no lingering or serious damage upon it. However, as he was about to return inside there in the forest came a peculiar sound and he had just enough time to recognize it as the woman's voice before lightning appeared from no visible cloud to strike somewhere in the distance.

"Leave it alone." Alucard told himself. "Leave it." He pleaded with himself again.

The manticore roared and underneath the rumbling thunderous sound there came a multitude of shrieks.

"Trevor I blame you for this." Alucard, against all of his better judgement, made his way to the manticore den as swift as the wind or perhaps faster. When he had came close enough, he saw a dozen demons flying around the area and accosting the manticore who had taken to swiping, clawing, biting, and incinerating them as best he could, getting clawed and set ablaze in turn by the other demons. Stopping there, he stood still and listened closely, hearing the rapid heartbeats, the rush of the air being cut by countless wings and claws, and the growing roar of flames.

That nightmare.

The fire at his feet that still held him in place and invaded his body.

Those words that he knew Trevor and Sypha would never say....would they?

A demon shrieked and Alucard saw that one had miraculously found a blind spot in the manticore's defenses and slipped towards the den only to be hit full force with a bolt of lightning.

"She fancies herself a wrathful god," Alucard saw the woman holding her hand out and a fierce light in her eyes. "Or a Speaker." He narrowed his eyes, turning his attention to the unholy shrieks and screams, and lunged with blade in hand, killing one demon in one strike, stabbing two in another strike, and bludgeoning a fourth with the bodies of the second and third one, setting the lot of them be stabbed with a barrage of venomous barbs from the manticore and with each moment Alucard felt himself relieving some tension of that nightmare.

In a short moment of relief he caught the gaze of manticore, perhaps hearing it wordlessly question why he was here or asking himself that question as he looked at the blue abyss of its eyes.

Seven of the flying nuisances were still alive, four being killed by Alucard and the manticore and two by the woman with magic. Alucard could now see the demon children, both restless in their manticore forms and hesitant to pounce, only able to take halting hops forward and backward, hissing and yowling to high heaven with fury.

The adult manticore had been jumped on by a demon and before it could escape the manticore reared up on his hindquarters and attacked it mid air, slicing it into quarters while catching another with his rows and rows of teeth, shaking his prey furiously until it was but a mangled mess of limbs and blood within his maw.

Alucard let the blade free and killed another two, the unholy crimson missed his form by the mere width of a hair as he jumped off the manticore's head, paying half a mind into noticing that one of its horn had broken off and seemingly long ago given how neat and clean injury looked, stabbing one demon and dragged the demon to the ground, killing it as they fell. He landed in front of the last two of the night hoard who seemed to realize they had been overpowered and only scarcely had time to think of their actions, should they happen to be intelligent enough to form such complex thoughts, before barbs flew past Alucard and into the shrieking creatures. Alucard watched as they began to writhe and bubble in agony before bursting into blood and gore.

Cleaning his sword and slinging it within one of his belt loops, Alucard looked at the den, seeing that the adult manticore had been quick to change form and return to his mate and his children. He heard them whisper sweet words to each other, assuring the other that they were unharmed, and for a countless time, Alucard felt a fire overtaking his body, and before he could make a fool of himself even more in front of them he turned to leave.

"Goldy." The manticore spoke loudly but not rudely or sternly nor with any excitement.

He stopped but did not turn, keeping his senses keen for any sudden movement.

"Are you trying to make me indebted to you?" The manticore spoke more, grunting a bit as surely the woman gave him a bit of hell for his question. "I was joking."

"Your jokes are terrible." Alucard looked back at him with a glare, turning his attention to the woman. "You did not tell me you could use magic."

"You didn't asked." The woman, winded and appearing a bit haggard as she leaned against the manticore to stand and holding her stomach, replied with a weary smile.

Listening closely once more, the little heartbeat in her womb still pounded with fear, and the hearts of the two others matched their quivering forms as they tried settle on one form as they jumped around in the demon guts with fervor, uncaring of the dirt or the blood that were sure to stain their fur and clothes.

One moment of his nightmare became clear once more, the smiling face of his mother.

I swore to never do this again, Alucard thought to himself. But you believed in them so much, even to your dying breath. Your kindness is what brought me into this world...

The manticore had seemingly decided that the vampire was no immediate threat and helped the woman sit somewhere comfortable and attempted to clean some of the mess, kicking the bodies and stomping on any head that so much as twitched with any fleeting sign of unholy life. The children settled into their demon forms, batting about the bodies with waning interest.

Alucard turned sharply on his heels and began walking back to the castle, listening to their voices becoming fainter as he kept marching, the animals of the night silent in whatever hole or burrow they chose to hide in to avoid the skirmish but their heartbeats clear as glass to the vampire. When he reached the castle, he walked past the steps and back to where he had landed when he leapt from the window, seeing shards of glass glittering in the moon light.

He picked one up, seeing himself in the reflection and wondering how he came to look so ghastly; his complexion paler more than usual even in the soft glow of night, his hair unkept and tangled, and dark rings now lay under his bloodshot eyes.

The glittering shard was crushed within his palm, creating a bloody and equally glittering powder that fell to the ground in clumps. Standing now, the lord of the castle returned inside and dressed the puny excuse of a wound he inflicted upon himself, cleaning and wrapping with some amount of care before making his way back to the study he had abandoned in his distracted quest to retrieve his fallen blade, which now had dried bits of demon blood upon it.

A gust of wind must have blew out the candles for the study had been bathed in darkness with but a single sliver of moonlight illuminating the room. That single sliver of gentle light had been more than enough for him to see the state in which he had left it. Pages strewn about and at the mercy of the creeping wind, the wall and floor now stained with wine and remnants of food, its scent stinging his nose more so than the rot and decay outside that now found its way inside without the window to stand in its way.

Slowly, his feet feeling heavier with each step, he moved towards the desk and stood in front of it, allowing the moonlight to wash over him.

"What am I doing..." Alucard said so lowly one could mistake it for a fleeting whispering breeze.

His eyes began to water once more as his body trembled. He fell to the floor, his form changing slowly and when he raised his head once more it was the head of a wolf.

The forest, once quiet and still with fear, now had but one sound to call its own and it was the agonizing aria of lament, of loss, of sorrow, and of loneliness. The wolves of the forest began to howl in turn, their voices filled with the same mourning.

And as the night passed, the howls died one by one, leaving the castle all but silent as choking sobs echoed within its empty walls.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point I should probably mention that I was listening to Overly Sarcastic production's live readings of Edgar Allan Poe stories(ON LOOP) so that's why this fic is like that and trust me this was a pain in the ass.
> 
> Oh, um, Alucard's going complete bonkers in this chapter with some incredibly mean spirited hallucinations.

Dawn arrived without his acknowledgement. The sun provided little to no warmth as it replaced the silver moonbeams with its golden distant light. Perhaps around mid morning he finally began to rise from his position on the floor, which was as comfortable as a slab of rock but leagues better than that accursed bed that he had all but decided to burn to rid himself of its existence and its memory.

But his body had other plans, moving by its own will and not his, whining and growling for food as he had neglected to eat for some time, and so he slowly pulled himself off the floor and onto his feet. He paid no mind to the mess he had made last night, deciding that perhaps it looked better that way and what would be the point of cleaning if he, as a petulant and angry teenager that Sypha and her puppet insisted he was, were to throw another tantrum that would undoubtedly result in a similar if not more extreme disaster.

Perhaps if he had some food in him he would feel better, and with this thought he stumbled around the castle, to the garden his father built to help provide his human lover with proper nourishment, and found that when he knelt down to pick some of the crop, he could not stand again. So, with a bountiful crop of fresh food in arm's reach, he began to slowly eat but found that despite his stomach being the one to bully him into coming here it did not favor anything and felt as thought if he took even a single small bite more it would reject his efforts with a wrath like none else.

No matter, it would be enough, he declared as he undertook the laborious task of pulling himself up into a standing position to walk somewhere. Where exactly he wanted to go he had no discernible idea as he could not begin to think of any location within the castle that would bring him any amount of joy. The halls that once held his childhood, or perhaps even most of his entire life, were empty and hollow things with no end. The Belmont hold no longer had any of its wonder and splendor as the collection of magical knowledge maintained for generations, now only standing as yet another reminder of what his life had become.

Desolate ruins.

He had no ambition to venture outside for it would not be any better than it had been inside. The sun now blinded him, the trees and grass were too many and too quiet for him, the animals too loud despite their smallest sounds with their carefree lives of eating and sleeping and occasional procreational humping.

And the smell.

Good lord the horrid smell.

Some would think that with Alucard growing up as the son of Dracula would have long grown accustomed to the stench of death and rot in all stages but those minds would fail to realize that by the time he had been born, most if not the entirety of the corpses that adorned the front steps of the castle in its previous location were dried skeletons that were more solid rock than bone, and he had not seen his father kill a human nor impale their bodies as the lord of vampires had been infamous for.

As such, Alucard's appetite often waned whenever he stepped outside and more so as he returned from foraging, as the rot emitting from the corpses often grew too much even for him with the distinct underlying difference in the smell of a rotting human corpse and the rot of an animal, or rather, various animals that were dying, dead, and in various stage of decay that he could detect within the forest. Should he stay outside long enough, he can ignore the rot of the human corpses and focus instead on his future meals, letting the other scents of flowers and leaves and the occasional territorial markings and droppings color his mental image of the area.

Then again, a vampire such as himself, even if he was only half monster, would not be too disturbed by the smell of fresh blood, and despite Trevor himself smelling of vomit combined with the slightest whiff of piss, Belmonts, according to Alucard's father, had a scent of their own that made their blood all the more sweeter and delicious to drink should any be lucky enough to draw even a single drop of it. Though whether his father had been truthful in that matter or if it was out of an age old grudge against the monster hunters, Alucard could not say, for Trevor's blood only smelled appetizing for one moment and even then he had to hold back all primal instinct to bite and tear the Belmont's neck at that very moment.

But the smell of the rot now invaded the castle unimpeded, concentrated within the ruined study and creeping under the door to linger within the hallway, following Alucard wherever he went. The rot brought with it a touch that groped at him, scratching his neck and clawing at his chest where the blade had hovered mere inches from an agonizing death. He shook the memory from his mind, he had too much to do and those thoughts would only slow him down.

For now, until some hapless traveler stumbled upon the castle so that he may kill them and add to the collection or find some other form of entertainment, Alucard stayed within the Belmont hold, browsing the collection but finding that nothing had struck any interest beyond remembering what book had been placed where, though he did indeed find the box of penis spells that Sypha had so giddily spoke of but disappointingly it had been nowhere near Trevor's childhood bed.

"You should have invited her in." His voice gained the higher pitch and accent once more. "Where are your manners? You're becoming as rude and horrible and terrible and many other words for rude and horrible and terrible and you should feel bad-"

The sword sliced at thin air and Alucard had but a second to realize what he had just done. He looked to where the blade had swiped and saw that no tangible form had been standing in the blade's path but instead sitting prettily on one of the many shelves in all its painstakingly hand-crafted testament to insanity was the little puppet of Sypha Belnades, smiling down at him despite its face not having a mouth according to his design.

Now Alucard knew he had not touched the proof of his waning sanity nor its companion, the puppet of Trevor Belmont, at any recent point in time and had even thought of burning them but hated the mere suggestion of touching the damned things yet somehow the both of them had been moving seemingly on their own will and following him to make mocking comments. The puppet of Sypha, here on known as Puppet Sypha, most often appeared wherever there were more than five books, such as his father's library and in the Belmont clan's magical archive as she did now, to make riveting insights and tell him in so many words that he was still an impatient brat. The puppet of Trevor, similarly to be known as Puppet Trevor, could often be found lounging around in the kitchen and the wine cellar, as Alucard had found himself down there more and more in recent days to find more drinks, often just to whine about the lack of the cheap beer he favored and muse about his drunken outings as if he were the hero of any given story he rambled about.

"Fuck you." Alucard hissed at the puppet and sheathed his sword, going back to the books and feigning interest. If he wanted to talk to himself he'd rather find a mirror.

However his brow furrowed in anger as he had to now think of who may be moving the puppets without his knowing for he would have certainly known if another living being had entered the estate. And lest he had been losing bits of his memory he had been dead certain he was not moving them.

"Oh you wish." He mimicked her voice and the tone she had from his nightmare. "Trevor sure is and even his tiny dick is better than yours will ever be." Alucard threw a book at where the puppet had been only to find that it had moved yet again. "Shut up!" He shouted, looking around and swearing under his breath, her voice-hers and not his poor imitation-laughing in his ears.

"You were just our attack dog you know," her voice continued and Alucard found the puppet, tossing another thicker book at it, this time keeping his eyes on the thing to assure he actually hit it and even if he didn't he'd hoped to spy on what invisible force had been moving it. Unfortunately, he failed in both aspects as the book had been large enough to block his view of the puppet, seeing it had only made impact with the shelf, his true target nowhere to be seen. "And how fitting it is that you could turn into a pretty wild mutt."

"Show yourself." Alucard hissed again, now weaving in and out of the shelves, attacking when the opportunity presented itself and holding the sheath of his blade. "You face the son of Dracula. Show yourself you cowards!"

"Oh how scary," Trevor's voice now made itself known, the puppet laying on its belly and staring at him.

Alucard, still unable to sense what foe he had been facing now, hissed and struck with his nails this time around, lunging at the puppet, attempting to grab and tear it in one movement but his fingers had only cut air, the little doll disappearing into nothingness at his touch.

"Phantoms?" He stepped back, wondering if he had accidentally tripped some ancient magical trap somewhere in the archives meant to drive trespassers mad. He wouldn't put it past them but doubted anyone that was of Trevor's bloodline could even think of such a clever mechanism.

The voices continued, laughing at him, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a moving shape that bore some resemblance to the Belmont.

Some part of him knew it that it was an illusion, be it of his mind that slowly lost sanity with each passing day or of the Belmont's limited magical doing, that he would know when the real Trevor and Sypha had come anywhere near the castle and deal with them as he planned but anger had dulled his senses, clouded his mind, misled his judgement, leading him to strike at the phantom only to again strike nothing but empty air.

"Stick to barking you mangy mutt," the voice was behind him now.

This time, Alucard tossed the whole shelf in retaliation, shouting in exertion and fury and more so when he found nothing had been struck by the heavy shelf and nor the multitude of books that had now been scattered.

"Look at me, I'm Alucard! Oh woe is me my mother is dead!" The mocking phantom that took Sypha's likeness rushed behind him, disappearing before he can see it.

"Stop it!" Alucard cried, holding his head and shaking with rage. "Stop corrupting their memory!"

Why did it matter so much to him, he wondered. He had already decided they would be dead at his hands if he ever saw them again. If? Some fragment of his mind scoffed at the word and its vague possibility. They would surely come back when they found another use for the vampire and abandon him when they were finished just as they had done before.

"I'm just an angry teenager who can't control my emotions!" The Sypha phantom took the form of the puppet again, which had been tossed into his face and caught with a fury. He looked at the puppet, seeing the stitches he himself had placed and not seeing anything out of the ordinary.

"Uh," the phantom of Trevor cleared what could be whatever throat a phantom could have. "I'm Alucard and I'm dumb and have no friends."

Another puppet was thrown at him, the one of the monster hunter, and again no alteration or sabotage had been spotted, no stitch out of place and no blood sigils painted anywhere.

"Well you certainly are as witty as him," Alucard hissed, hearing the phantoms still about. He clenched the puppets in his hand and began to storm out, no longer seeing any point in playing this game. The door, however, had seemed to suddenly become locked. "What the fuck-?" He tried again and still the door did not budge no matter how many times he checked the lock. He looked to shelves, now in disarray at his doing, seeing nothing else amiss, not even the phantoms that were so keen on driving him mad. "I hate the Belmonts." Alucard hissed and tapped at the door with his elbow, testing how hard he would have to strike to break it.

"Liar."

Another familiar voice that he knew should not be speaking.

"Let me out." Alucard tried the door again, seeing more phantoms stumbling towards him from the remnants of the shelves and books, each taking the form of the only other two humans he had considered companions. "Let me out!"

"Liar."

"You've been alone for so long."

"Liar."

"It's time for your reward."

Some took the visage of their living selves, the coy smiles of aspiring vampire hunters. Others were nude and crawled on the floor in stiff and unnatural ways. Others still appeared as death, from the slit throats to the rotting corpses that stood just outside the front doors of the castle.

Once more he tried the door, hearing them grow closer and closer, a second time he felt the phantoms' burning hands grabbing him, and upon the third try the door opened, sending him straight towards the floor. He kicked and crawled to the opposing wall grabbing his blade out of its sheath in that instant and readying it for attack, clenched tightly and shakily in his hand, but as expected there were no physical forms the blade could touch and the visions had disappeared.

He sat there, back against the wall, breathing heavily, his heart pounding so hard he feared it would leap from his chest despite knowing the physical impossibility of such a thing. He sat for a long while, pulling his knees up to his chest and hiding the tears that began to emerge.

"No-!" He shouted at himself, punching the wall as he began to stand. "No more crying. You are not a child." He hissed to himself as he looked upon the shambles that had been the Belmont archive and began to mentally reconstruct what it would take to restore it but found it hard to step past the threshold. He gripped at the frame of the door and shook, mentally commanding himself to take that step and fix what he had broken.

"That's all you do, isn't it?" The phantom of Trevor spoke again, its voice right in his ear. "All you can do is kill and ruin everything you touch. You couldn't save your mother, you killed your own father, and now look where you are. Alone, going mad. What a fitting end for you, monster."

Those words sparked a great fire and Alucard found himself marching with more purpose than he had felt all day and when he found what he had been searching for, a fireplace with wood waiting to be lit, he had felt more alive than ever. With his blade, the wood was ablaze and replaced with a high and hot flame, and Alucard held the two puppets over the fire.

"You two have been a thorn in my side for far too long," He hissed as the flames eagerly awaited their meal of cloth and thread. "This is nothing compared to the hellfire I will damn your souls to."

His hands still clung to the puppets. Just as with the door and his failure to move his feet, he could not move his hand and release his fist to drop the puppets into the fire. His arm trembled and his fist instead seemed to tighten with each urge to let go.

Memories of their travels together, the trials and tribulations and the battles they fought alongside each other with, flashed in his mind. From their first meeting, where Trevor had, much to Alucard's relief and chagrin, proved himself in battle, to the moment Alucard realized just how powerful Sypha was when she took control of a demon's fiery breath and caused it to explode while it had still been inside of the monster.

He could not destroy them and even if, that word again, even if he did, there would be no point.

With teeth gritted and a few tears, Alucard threw the puppets to a nearby wall and extinguished the fire. As he stormed away once more, he looked at them where they fell.

"Don't you dare try to follow me." He hissed, shutting the door with a slam, reminding himself that this was the room he had left the puppets in and any other he would see were not real.

He found himself marching once more to the garden. Here, his father had grown crops both for the study of their growth and, eventually, for his mother's sake, though the other vampires that would arrive and go at their own whim would help themselves to the often times literal fruits of his father's labor despite not needing the food for its one and only purpose. He sat again, looking at the plants that, for the most part of their lives, relied on him. They needed water and merely dumping a bucket of it would not do for any of them. Some needed more than others, and the water itself must be cleaned and purified as to not introduced unwanted chemicals into the carefully measured composition of the soil. In addition to this, trimmings would need to be done to ensure proper growth, as some plants would conquer others should they be left unattended otherwise.

"How complex you little things are," Alucard spoke softly, gently caressing a leaf with yellowing edges. "So simple in thought yet you are more alive than I am. Perhaps if I listen closely, I can hear the secrets to your wisdom." He examined the yellowing leaf, remembering his father's lessons on what the plant would need to return to its lively green color. "I wonder though," he plucked the leaf and held it to the artificial light meant to mimic the sun. "How would you fare outside? In the true light of day? With the water filled with fish piss and herbivores that would devour you with no mercy?"

Much easier now, he tossed the leaf away and sat pondering; of the visions that plagued his sleep, the phantoms that haunted him during the day, the maddening silence around him, and the warmth from the artificial light that felt more real than that of the harsh and uncaring sun.


	6. Chapter 6

The castle stood within the forest in an almost unnatural state. The ground underneath the castle held no foundation to the structure as it was untouched and unspoiled land until that fateful day when the moving machine of what he called home had landed there and become crippled in the battle to end Dracula's reign of terror.

How simple that idea was. Kill the summoner and the summoned evils should disappear, should they not? Apparently that was not how it worked in the case of his father, as the summoned demons did not disappear, be it quietly or in painful and perhaps even overly dramatic displays of death befitting of their summoner.

The demons still ran free, killing as they were told and delighted in doing so. His father spent quite a bit of thought into summoning them it seemed if they were able to remain in the realm of humans with little to no trouble. Perhaps it was his father's orders that kept them chained until they were killed. That order to attack all the towns and cities of Wallachia and leave no human alive in the name of love too soon and too cruelly ripped from the world.

And for what purpose did Alucard live now? He could not reign in his father's demons. He could not kill them all as they had spread far and wide by this point in time, for if his father could be anything he was at least a man of his word, and Wallachia would fall in a great flame as did the world when Pandora had opened her box, should such legend be true, and considering a supposedly mythical monster such as himself was but one that existed, he felt a sort of pity for her, being tricked into unleashing horrors upon the world.

Alucard had fixed the archive, not that it needed much fixing besides a few stray bookshelves and many a disheveled tome of magical knowledge left carelessly on the floor. The window was for another day, leaving him to wander once more and outside where there were no suffocating walls to crush him.

Outside had not been much better, however. Still the same forest, same scents, no change in anything really. He walked and walked and perhaps by memory he had come to the stream where he gathered fish but today instead he would watch them go by.

"What meaning does your life have..." He looked into the water, seeing the fish swim by unaware of his presence. "What purpose do you serve? To what end does your struggle to live and produce offspring achieve? Most of you don't even live that long. You are eaten by things much bigger than you that could not care less of your instinctual desires. You most likely eat things that also wish to live. Do you care? Do you care of the lives you steal so that yours may continue?"

The reflection in the water had become distorted and when it settled it had not been Alucard's but instead the face he saw was that of his father.

His hand slapped the offending vision, creating a sizable wave and he slumped backwards to the rock wall behind him, holding his head between his knees and running his fingers through his hair in a vain attempt to keep himself held together as the last moments he ever saw his father flashed before his eyes.

"You can't catch fish that way." The adult manticore's voice spoke from across the stream and when Alucard's scorned gaze looked up indeed there stood the demon with an empty basket in hand.

"Shut up." Alucard clicked his tongue and turned his head, keeping the manticore within his line of sight, be it direct or in his peripheral vision now that he could actually see the environment around him.

"There wasn't even a fish there." The adult manticore knelt down and set the basket on the ground, his eyes on the water. "You suck at fishing."

"I've caught plenty of fish on my own, no thanks to you or anyone else." Alucard spat.

The adult manticore made a humming grunt of acknowledgement. "So I have heard." He held his hand at the ready for any wayward fish that did not flee at Alucard's outburst. "Vali and Vera like your food."

"Who?" Alucard raised an eyebrow.

"The little ones." The manticore struck the water quickly, impaling two fish on his elongated nails that were promptly dropped into the basket. "Or bastards, as you call them."

"Oh." Alucard wondered if he did hear those names before as they did sound somewhat familiar to him but he could not place where, though the meanings of those two names, strength and faith respectively, were rather amusing to what little humor he had left in these trying times. "I'm-" he found himself befuddled at the thoughts that wanted to become words. "Glad to hear that."

Another strike, somehow more furious than the last, two more fish were caught and dropped into the basket. The manticore did not respond to his words, allowing the silence of rushing water and active animals, ranging from the deer and their delicate steps to the singing birds and the lumbering bears, to overtake the space around them. A third strike though this time only one fish had been caught and yet despite this the manticore did not seem frustrated, counting the bounty and nodding in satisfaction of a successful hunt.

"The boy doesn't like vegetables," Alucard said, catching the manticore's attention. "He was quite stubborn and I almost killed him then and there."

For a split second, a mere heartbeat, the manticore's eyes held no hint of false humanity and instead showed their true demonic nature, unsettling the nearby wildlife as they ran away from the large predator that had suddenly appeared in the vicinity. As quickly as those eyes changed they had changed back, back to the unwavering and uninterested gaze of a dull and unassuming man.

"Iarna says that is natural for young children," the manticore nodded. "I too dislike the taste of plants, though apples are interesting to eat. Some are sweet and some are sour, I never know which to expect."

Alucard almost laughed but held it in, though his changing breath did not go unnoticed. "And Sypha says I'm a child." Still, he chuckled and smirked at the thought of a mighty manticore scrunching its nose at the sight of potatoes and carrots.

The manticore tilted his chin down, his gaze still on the laughing vampire. "I should be going. The last time I met a man while I was out I ended up in a bar fight and Iarna was not happy."

That made Alucard lose his breath even more, strange as he usually did not consider such trivial things to be humorous. "And you didn't get run out of town? Or murder everyone?" The look on the manticore's face had been quite amusing as well. "How did such a series of events even occur?"

The manticore, Adam as Alucard vaguely remembered his first time meeting the demon, looked at the basket of fish and towards the vampire. "It is a rather long story."

Finally able to regain some breath, Alucard stood. "Well it's not like I have anything better to do." Except he had to fix the window, fix the machinery that allows the moving castle to actually move, get through all of the now restored Belmont's magical archives, and supply himself with enough sticks for any trespassers but he had all the time in the world to do those things and genuinely had no other immediate task to finish, so with ease Alucard hopped to the other side of the stream.

This gesture seemed to surprise the manticore, who looked the vampire up and down in what could be bewilderment before deciding that this had not been some sort of trick and indeed the lord of the castle had been interested in hearing such a tale.

"A few years ago, a while after I had met Iarna." The manticore had begun walking but paused and thought of his words. "Should I start at that moment? No, I do not believe it matters much in this story. Anyways, as I said, this was a few years ago, before the little ones were born. Iarna and I had been travelling together for some time, and she said if I am to declare her as mine then I should act like it."

"And what pray tell," Alucard had been trying to fix his hair, mildly annoyed with all of the tangled knots, but listened intently all the same. "Does that mean?"

"Doing whatever she says as it seems. I was told to collect some things from a nearby town seeing as how I pass more easily as a human due to her-" the manticore pointed to his face, "unique appearance. She also has a hatred of cities but that is besides the point."

"Yes yes, go on." Alucard managed to straighten out one section of hair.

"She had a few instructions, most importantly not to start any trouble. I had finished collecting what I had been told to collect and I had been using the back alleys to make my exit when I stumbled upon a man who smelled so horrible even I had trouble keeping my composure." The manticore's nose twitched ever so slightly, which made Alucard chuckle again.

"Apologies, continue." Alucard said.

He did not immediately continue, thinking again and Alucard swore he could see the gears turning in the manticore's head. "Do you know of the Belmonts?" The manticore asked and he definitely noticed that Alucard had stopped walked and he himself stopped a few paces ahead.

"What of them?" Alucard hissed, the phantom's words in his head again.

The manticore's eyes once again narrowed slightly. "Perhaps it is unimportant then."

"No no, do tell what that clan of self righteous idiots has to do with this story?" Alucard felt his fists clenching, more specifically his nails digging into his palms.

After a moment of thought, the manticore spoke again, his voice low and with a hint of a rumbling growl. "I fought a Belmont long ago. It is how my horn was broken." He pointed to his forehead. "I can never forget that man's scent, and the man I found in the alley, despite the stench of vomit, piss, shit, and who knows what else, had the scent of that Belmont."

There was only one Belmont that could ever possibly fit that description that Alucard personally knew. Of all the drunken bastards in the world, what were the odds?

"Continue." Alucard said as he walked with more purpose, now only curious as to how Trevor had failed to notice the cheat of a demon pretending to be a man and let a manticore run freely.

"If you insist." The manticore nodded. "Whether the pitiful man was a Belmont I might never know, which is why I said it may not be entirely important."

"You suck at telling stories." Alucard huffed, fixing his hair again and finding a twig in the golden locks.

The manticore glanced at him but nodded all the same. "The man spotted me and began to talk nonsense and even in all my experience with human language the ramblings of a drunk man are beyond my comprehension. He asked me what I was doing. I answered. He seemed elated for some reason I could not fathom at the time and insisted I join him in drinks."

"And so you joined."

"So I did. He became more intoxicated. I felt-" he paused again and tilted his chin down. "Mostly unchanged. Humans are fragile things yet find new ways to make themselves even more vulnerable. A few hours, as I found out later, into the drinking the man tried have the rest of the bar join in as well."

"And how did that go?" Alucard had gotten a few more sections of hair neat, or as neat as he could manage without his brush.

"He got punched in the face."

"Oh my god it was Trevor," Alucard felt himself stop for a moment but continue walking, muttering to himself and whether the manticore noticed it he did not know for he resumed speaking all the same.

"The other patrons tried to fight me and at first I thought about not fighting back as I had been told to not start trouble." The corners of the manticore's lips twitched and his voice seemed different.

"But you didn't." Alucard noticed it and the pride in the answering nod.

"The man was a good fighter, even when he was drunk. And I handled myself well." The manticore continued. "After it was over we had been kicked out of the bar, at which point I realized how long I had been distracted. The man vomited on my shoes and passed out, I considered leaving him the street but Iarna told me that the dead deserve some respect."

"The man died?" Alucard now wondered if there were in the world a Belmont bastard or two running around and the thought, as much as it amused him, also frightened him.

"No." The manticore sounded disappointed in his answer, as if he should have killed the man if it was indeed Trevor or a bastard. "I had heard that holy sites were safe, though I have my doubts on such things. So I left the man in an empty grave by the town's church and returned to Iarna. She was furious with me. I did not like seeing her mad."

"Women are like that." Alucard remembered one of the few times his mother had truly been upset with his father, an incident regarding Alucard's diet and a dead rabbit. "Did she strike you with lightning?"

"No." The manticore looked down again, and Alucard had quickly come to realize this was the manticore's way of showing emotion such as embarrassment. "Though I still have no earthly or otherwordly idea where she kept all the breath she needed to scold me in such a way."

Alucard chuckled a little, more calmly than the near insane and uncontrolled laughter from before and he realized he had followed the manticore all the way back to the den, where the little demons ran around happily, jumping from the hill to the ground below and racing back to the top to do it all over again. The woman, Iarna as he came to half heartedly remember, had been sitting with a second bucket and judging by the dirty water she had been just finished cleaning their clothes, which would explain their current preference of their demon form.

"Oh," the woman looked at him with that odd recognition again. "You came?"

Looking to the manticore and back to her, Alucard had something of an amused but tired smile on his face. "I have become bored of the quiet of the castle and wish to torture myself by minding the little wailing bastards."

The woman shook her head but smiled. "Vali! Vera! Look who's here!"

She called to the two and they stopped what they were doing, mid way through their climb back up to the hill, and once their sights were set on him the vampire knew his fate was sealed. They rushed at him, running around both him and their father, yowling at him with excitement.

The manticore seemed much more at ease around them, even as they leapt up to their father's shoulders and batted at the basket that surely smelled of food.

"Do you wish to join us, oh golden lord?" The woman asked as she set aside the clothes, wiping some sweat from her brow.

"A-" he paused, the next letter and realizing what name he was about to speak and stopping himself from revealing such a precious bit of knowledge. "Alucard." He said. "I believe the two have failed to remember that."

"Well, Alucard," the woman said again, still smiling. "Do you wish to join us in a meal? It won't compare to your cooking by any leagues but as my grandmother said, meals are much better when you share with others."

Perhaps it was then that Alucard realized what potential his mother saw in humanity. At their best they take in the weak and ill, protecting and nurturing them with all they can. Even a fearsome monster such as his father, who had killed a countless number of her kind fellow man, had found himself powerless to the point that her death was his as well and all the world had suffered in his father's funeral pyre.

But not all, so it seemed.

In this desolate world of anger, fear, hatred, and death, a human and a demon had found each other and produced new life.

Perhaps I can try again, Alucard thought to himself. "I would be delighted to join you." He bowed and at that the two demons batted at his hair, which he had still yet to completely tidy up and thus their claws caught on the tangled mess. "Ow."

"Vali, Vera, mind your manners!" Their mother now scolded.

"No no, it's fine." Alucard reassured despite his raging inner emotions that he kept in line. "If I have to talk to those puppets again I might go mad."

The fire was started and as the smell of cooking fish filled the air, Alucard felt something of an appetite return and only then did he realize how little he ate earlier and how truly maddening the silence of the castle had been, not that he would invite these people in to liven things up.

Not yet, at least, he secretly thought.


	7. Chapter 7

Under the shade of a large tree, its leaves and branches swaying in the gentle breeze as the afternoon sun shined above, Alucard sat quietly, listening to the world around him, sword at his hand and his hand lightly resting upon the hilt. To his right, in a tree a few feet away, a bird tended to its nest diligently, surprising considering as it should have left to somewhere safer with all the demonic screeching. To his left, the stream just a few minutes walk away or in his case a short jump, the water rushing lazily as it does.

A form larger than the average little woodland animal stepped too loudly. He remained as he was, still and quiet, but a small smile crept onto his face as tiny claws scratched the ground in quite the hurry. He listened more, hearing the paths they were taking, one following the other and diverging to circle around him. They had quite the breakfast so it seemed, their footsteps sluggish with bellies full of meat, which he could still smell on their breaths by the way. He peeked, opening one eye ever so slightly and noticing the bushes rustling with movement.

"Well, guess that's enough napping for me." Alucard spoke a bit too loudly as he stretched and began to stand. "Maybe I'll take the scenic route back to the castle."

"No!" Two little voices yowled from the undergrowth, giving warning to the vampire of two child-like forms leaping at him, which he dodged rather easily and took the opportunity to catch them as they clearly did not factor in his ability to move in a blink of an eye as they aimed for where he had just been and not where he had been going. "Stay! Please!" They continued yowling and squirming in his arms.

Alucard chuckled as he held them firm, even as they began to change back into their demon forms in his grip. "You two are getting better. I almost didn't hear you prowling around."

The two looked up at him and their tiny voices were still clear despite no longer being able to form words.

"Almost." Alucard repeated, releasing his grip as they dropped onto the ground feet first and running off in a new game of chasing, biting, and tumbling over each other as the three of them walked back to the den. The past few days had been doing wonders for whatever in the name of godforsaken Hell had been happening for his mind, and despite his constant unease around the happy couple he found that spending time with the little ones went by so much better. They had such a simple yet wise view of life. Just as he was a child of two worlds, the two at his side were also of two opposing forces.

Unwelcomed in human society that feared anything not of themselves, seen as weak because of the human blood by any self worshiping demon. Not even their own parents can understand what they needed to thrive in this world they had no choice of being born into, as one of them still had much to learn of humanity, the other cast out and embracing the path of magic.

And where did Alucard stand, he wondered as he watched the two now intently eyeing a squirrel in the trees. He himself had always leaned towards his inhuman side, growing too quickly for his mother to keep up with, straying from his father's path of science to study magic, though in that regard Alucard had tried to keep the two as close as he could manage seeing as how some of his parents' science could not be without some mystical root of apparent magical origin.

It had been a few days since that first shared meal, and each day Alucard had grown more tolerable of the two and even slightly envied them for being born together. In his younger days he had once asked for a sibling, though both his parents merely said they would think about it while sharing a little knowing smile between each other. His foolish little wish never really came to fruition, possibly for the better as Alucard did not want for this imaginary younger sibling to suffer should things have gone roughly the same way as they did now. Would they lash out as his father had, helping dear old dad in a misguided attempt to understand their grief? Or become alone when Alucard had fallen asleep to recover from his wounds as the old vampire withdrew deeper into his rage, neglecting the one other child that was half of his murdered love?

He would never know, though seeing Vali and Vera every day held...some fulfillment, as if the longer he entertained them in their games of play hunting the more he felt a part of that bond he once wished for, only to remember he was merely an outsider and nothing more, especially to these two who in turn were outsiders to him.

Still, pretending to be prey for them to hunt and catch was much better than sitting inside all day with dusty old books, though a couple of times the reverse had been true.

A sharp cry came from the den and all three of them froze for a long second. Alucard regained his senses quickly, dashing forward with his hand gripping the hilt of his sword, ready to attack whatever had dared to invade the manticore's dwelling.

However, only the happy couple could be found in the den.

"Is it time?" Alucard asked, relaxing his stance when he saw that there had been no immediate danger but understanding that as all things that go up must come down all things that go in also, eventually, come out.

"Almost," Iarna breathed heavily. "A stubborn little thing he is, how long does he plan on staying in there?" She smiled and looked to her lover. "He's got your thick skull Adam dear."

The manticore poked his forehead as if to test how thick his skull apparently was, a small amusing action to the vampire. Speaking of, Alucard glanced over his shoulder, seeing the two younger manticores trotting up to the den and investigating for themselves, cuddling up to their mother to both comfort her and ask for comfort in turn, they were children afterall and quite sensitive of their growing emotions.

"I'm fine darlings," Iarna assured them.

"Not in this dirt hole," Alucard looked around the den again, mostly dirt with a few roots of a nearby tree poking through what counted as a ceiling, a few belongings scattered about, and nothing much else besides some stones.

Both expecting parents looked at Alucard with some annoyance, the manticore more so as much as his usually stoic and reserved demeanor could allow as if offended his handiwork was insulted.

"A filthy burrow such as this may work for animals," he realized the jest of his words seeing the manticore children rolling in said dirt but held his tongue. "But we are not animals, mindlessly fighting and fucking."

"Language." Iarna scolded.

"Its true." Adam agreed, though this only led to Iarna shifting her sharp glare to him.

Now as Alucard's thoughts still lingered in his mind, he began to feel doubt at what he had been thinking of suggesting. To let them in would defy his vow of solitude, to allow his home, already broken and barely standing after his battle with his father that led them through walls, to be once again at the mercy of those he dared to trust with such a delicate thing he held dear to his heart that had already been so grievously wounded not too long ago. Though if Iarna's third half-breed would be able to stand any chance at surviving, they would need an environment far more cleaner than a literal hole in the ground. How the first two even survived, and in fact even conceived in the first place, were a question for another time.

"I-" Alucard felt himself growing angry with the thought but reminded himself of why he even suggested the idea despite the internal war. "I can allow you to stay in the castle and provide a much safer room when the time comes." Which could be any day now, he thought to himself.

Adam seemed interested by that suggestion, blinking once and his head raising slightly at the vampire's words. Iarna again had that look of recognition that Alucard could not properly place even now.

"Well it would be rude to decline such a generous offer," Iarna smiled. "I do apologize in advance for the screaming."

"It is nothing," Alucard said with a small and only somewhat insincere smile. "That crumbling pile of towers could do with more lively sounds."

"If you insist," She smiled.

"And you say my jokes are terrible." Adam said as he held his lover's hand, helping her to her feet with one hand and grabbing a plain bag that was among one of the few belongings that were about the den with the other hand.

As they did begin the march, with more assurances from Iarna that she would be able to make the long walk without trouble and their belongings now packed away within Adam's bag, Alucard took the time to observe the little family in more detail.

The first detail he had noticed, besides their peculiar composition, had been the fact that none of them wore shoes, though Adam seemed to have a pair somewhere if he had been trusted to walk into human society. Iarna, as with accordance with the notes Alucard's mother had stored away, could not comfortably wear whatever footwear she possessed as during pregnancy her feet and ankles had swelled, though it seemed she did not mind the dirt and the grass. The children, Vali and Vera, did not wear shoes and perhaps it had been for the best considering how they freely changed their forms.

Secondly, he had still yet to fully understand what had kept the manticore from killing her and what stupidity or courage or some mixture of those two allowed her to be within its presence without so much as a single ounce of disgust or fear. In that manner, he had still yet to comprehend what his mother saw in his father, nor what he saw in her, but he did know that whatever they had saw in each other led to a union that had carved its way into both their hearts, a union that resulted in a little blond babe being born that was gifted the name Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes and even now he could not fathom what would bring together a demon and a human but understood that whatever this secret quality was it held a strength stronger than fear as he watched Iarna and Adam walk arm in arm to what very well could be their deaths should one, the other, or Alucard himself be so inclined.

I do this kindness in her name, Alucard thought to himself as he led the march. For you, who saw beauty and potential in even the most hated of monsters, I do this for you, murdered for your ambition yet holding no ill will towards your murderers even with your last agonized breath. For you, whose death had taken my father's heart.

The castle stood tall and silent. A beacon of metal and wonder in the heart of a mostly untouched wilderness. Surprisingly, the scent of death from the two ornaments outside did not bother Alucard as much as they had before but as the entranced opened he could feel invisible hands clawing at him once more. Despite this, he kept calm, reminding himself that he had cleaned a few things and made it at look less of a battlefield, minus the stubborn melted gears and other such repairs.

"Oh my," Iarna gasped softly, she had been become breathless by the time they reached the castle and had been carried up the steps by Adam, who Alucard had definitely seen taking a long look at the corpses at the entrance that were thankfully unnoticed by the eager and curious children.

"I do apologize for anything unsightly," Alucard spoke. "Saving the world from my father's destructive grief had not been an easy battle." He continued to lead them through the halls of the castle, keeping to lower floors for ease and convenience as he felt he would be sticking to higher floors when not choosing to come see them.

"Now I see why people constantly complain about the rich." Adam spoke and looked at one of the decorative portraits still hanging on the wall with something of a sneer judging by his narrowed eyes.

Alucard felt the smallest twinge of disrespect but what did he honestly expect from a demon who disguised itself as a peasant. At last, he found a suitable room for the lot of them, one of the many unused rooms within what should be the servants' quarters within the remnants of the Belmont hold that were still somewhat usable. To not look a gift horse in the mouth, Alucard said nothing and allowed them in, hearing Iarna's heartbeat relaxing when she got into bed.

"Let me know when the time comes," Alucard said, watching the twins explore the little room and peering outside the window.

"So you can ignore the screaming." Adam said more than asked, getting another glare from his beloved.

"I am knowledgeable in medicine," Alucard replied. "Real medicine, not that witchcraft nonsense of brewing potions with snails and eyes of newts."

"Now now," Iarna joined in. "Your science only exists because of that so called nonsense. Herbs do work when you prepare them correctly you know."

"Insightful," Alucard rolled his eyes at a technically true but still outlandish statement. He looked again to the twins, seeing Vali and Vera were quite focused on the view from the window, more accurately the squirrel sitting in a nearby tree. The two growled, tapping the glass with annoyance as it currently was the only thing between them and their target. "I'll prepare lunch shortly, get comfortable."

He turned to leave and just before he closed the door, he heard them begin to talk. The manticore had been growing suspicious but relented to her reassuring words. They mentioned someone that the vampire allegedly resembles or reminded them of but did not say who, only referring to this person as 'her'.

That did not matter at the moment as Alucard had all but ran up the halls and steps to his now much cleaner but still rather unorganized study where he immediately slammed the door, locked it tight, and felt his lungs burning as he tried to steady his breath.

"Oh my god I let them in," he mumbled to himself. "Oh god, it's happening. I can't take it back, I'm such a fool, oh god." He began pacing. "No no, keep yourself together Adrian. You are stronger than any man or demon that comes through these lands, they pose no threat whatsoever." He took a deep breath and released his grip from his sword that he had unknowingly been grasping tightly in his mad mumbling. "I'm still not picking up their shit," his voice lowered and when he turned he knew exactly what would be sitting on his desk. "Shut up Trevor."

Puppet Trevor said nothing in return and the phantoms had thankfully also decided to stay silent.

Alucard took another deep breath and stood tall. "I am calm. I am strong. I can do this." One more deep breath. "Let's make lunch." He tried to smile as he hesitantly unlocked the door to his study and ventured back out.

A quick stop to the indoor garden, not paying much mind to Iarna's words about magic and science as the garden had some structure and truth to it, no chicken blood, no mushrooms, no superstitious prayers, just electricity and carefully created serums...that could be considered potions and magic to the uneducated commoner.

"Mother," Alucard sighed, sitting and looking at the carefully tended crops. "Am I making you proud? I never lied to Ta-" he paused, grimacing at the thought of their names. "I never lied to them, yet they betrayed me, tainting me and my soul. I vowed to live as father did, alone with only the scent of death to call home, yet I yearn for companions more than ever. I'm-" he felt his breath getting stuck in his throat along with his words. "I'm scared, mother. I'm scared to try again. To put in so much effort to do good only to be hurt again."

No response came to him yet he felt relieved to be able to speak freely and voice his fears, hell, even being able to call those thoughts what they were, his fears and worries, lifted some burden from his shoulders.

"I will try." Alucard sighed and stood. "I will try again, for your sake. I'm sorry that I could not save you, but with both God and the Devil himself as my witnesses I will try to be worthy of your memory and see their potential."

Alucard made his way to the kitchen, mentally listing the ingredients and instructions for the meal he planned to prepare. Mostly vegetables, much to the annoyance of both male manticores, though it would not be too much trouble to add in some meat. If he moved quickly, he could possibly find a few small game animals or perhaps one large one, after all he had not quite been able to rid himself of the habit of making more food than he himself could eat and it would be a waste.

"Fish? No, duck? Or-" a loud crash nearby alerted him and he nearly made a too human blunder of cutting his finger in surprise. "The fuck was that?"

He did not have to look far, for right outside the door of the kitchen leading back into the castle were Vali and Vera and what little remained of a vase that had once sat on a nearby desk.

"Should have known you two would get curious," Alucard sighed. "Back to this again are we?" He gave them a smile as the older sat on his haunches and yowled while the younger stood smiling back at him with sharp teeth. "You two should know that you're in my domain now." He picked them up and sat them at the table as he spoke. "I know every nook and cranny of this place, and there is nowhere you two can hide, although I welcome you to try. We'll play after we eat and this time I'll be the hunter." He could see his words were captivating, and they sat impatient. "But for now, I'll show you how I cook."

"Bleh," Vali groaned in disgust as he saw the array of ingredients and saw nothing that looked or smelled like meat. "I want rabbit!"

"Then go catch one yourself," Alucard chuckled and kept preparing the vegetables the little demon detested.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The madlad actually did it. He made FRIENDS!


	8. Chapter 8

Perhaps he had been hasty in his judgement to let in those he vowed to shun away, after all what good had letting in guests to the castle of Dracula ever done besides heartbreak and destruction to the keeper of the estate?

Perhaps the phantoms were only waiting for him to drop his guard before torturing him again with visions, quietly observing him from ever shadow they could find, listening to every word he spoke and somehow able to guess the words he dared not to speak out loud.

Or, a thought somehow even more frightening, perhaps he had made the right decision and he would, with time, relearn to not live in fear or hatred, instead choosing to live with compassion, welcoming others with open ar-

"Got you!" Vera's voice shouted from above as she jumped at Alucard with all her little might.

Alucard said nothing as he turned, seeing a flash of white he recognized as the young manticore that just gave away her hiding spot, not that he had failed to see her of course, he heard her giggles a few short moments ago. Her skills were no match for the vampire, and she might as well have been a feather with how easy it had been to catch her, though for fun he did spin on his heels, making her laugh even more.

"I got you! I got you!" Vera continued to chant happily despite being one impulse away from getting crushed in Alucard's grasp, laughing more and more.

"No," Alucard smiled. "I got you. I'm the hunter in this game now, remember?" He playfully made a biting motion towards her, purposely showing his long fangs and chuckling along with her as she also tried to bite at the vampire "Now, where's your brother?" He looked around, seeing no obvious signs of movement, past or present.

"You'll never find him," Vera whispered in a musical tone as she also gave the area a quick look around.

"You underestimate me," Alucard mimicked her tone as he continued his search. Suddenly, for lack of a better word, trapping half feral demon children in an enclosed space when it seemed all they knew had been the wild outdoors had not been the smartest idea as they became incredibly overwhelmed easily at all the new places to play in and the size of their new dwelling. They were small for now, both as humans and as demons, yet they will grow soon enough if his growth is any indication of how monster hybrids function.

For that reason he chose a safe room for them to play this little game, nothing fragile to break unless they were particularly determined, no priceless artifacts or treasures to destroy be it those of his or those of the Belmonts, though technically at this point those were one and the same, and especially no annoying dolls. He had, as silly and stupid and insane as it may have appeared to any outsider looking in, instructed both of the dolls to never appear in sight of the guests. Of course, no answer from them physically, his voice did not become one of theirs against his will, and the phantoms had been eerily silent as they had been for some time. Thus, what was left of the melted gears now served to entertain the little monsters, as there were many places to hide, climb, and in Vera's case, drop down in the manner of a bird of prey swooping down to hunt it's next meal.

"Vali," Alucard called, much to Vera's giggling amusement, he holding her steady where she sat upon his arm. "I know you're there."

His footsteps clicked against the stone floor as the mighty golden hunter continued his search for his prey.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Scratch.

Stopping, he listened closely once more. That had not been his footsteps, Vera sat mostly quiet but she began giggling once again at the sound.

"Shh," his whisper to Vera was not any louder than a breath.

"Shh," she mimicked back, making no attempt at hiding her sharp toothy grin.

Hearing echoing sounds of the castle settling, a few scurrying animals that had again somehow found a way inside the castle much to Alucard's small annoyance, and soon he had found the sounds he had been looking for; a little heartbeat, a shaking breath, and last but not least the tiniest of growls rumbling in the little manticore's throat.

Alucard smiled and readjusted his grip on Vera. "Hang on." He whispered again and felt her little hands tighten their grip as she nodded. "Let's-GO!"

He suddenly jumped, high and fast, making Vera squeal in delight at the sudden rush of movement and the following dashes and leaps and flips and other acrobatics Alucard decided to indulge himself in as he chased the little scurrying manticore. He even spotted the small running blur of dark red and a devilish little idea came to mind.

"Want to scare him?" Alucard asked, seeing the little snow white demon already changing forms as she began to squirm around. He may not really like children, seeing all of them of any age as ugly wailing filthy little gremlins and would gladly get rid of them as soon as he could and at this moment, dropping a more than willing hellspawn from such a height felt rather amazing.

Vera's tail, with the first few non-venomous barbs starting to grow in, spun in circles as she spread her wings and began to glide to her brother, catching him in her paws and making them take a bit of a tumble, each giving their best roars and growls.

"My turn." Alucard whispered as he dropped down as well behind the two, catching Vali by the tail before he could fall off the edge of the walkway, much to the yowling manticore's grievances. "Got you," he smiled at Vali, putting him back on the path. "Looks like that's twenty three victories for me and zero for the two of you."

"No fair!" Vali shouted as he returned to human form, sitting with a huff. "You're bigger than us!"

"While it is true I am stronger, I have faced foes much bigger than I am," Alucard sat down with them. "Even the biggest enemies can be squished like ants if you're clever enough. Their once intimidating size can become their own down fall."

Vali still huffed and pouted. "You're an ass!"

That....did not really surprise him.

"Ass! Ass! Ass!" Vali shouted some more and Vera looked at him with appropriate horror, disbelief, and even some disgust.

"Mama says you're not allowed to say that!" Vera scolded.

"Mama isn't here! I can say it if I want!" Vali argued.

"Well aren't you quite the little troublemaker." Alucard smiled, seeing something glow in Vali's throat and for a split second had felt something close to fear, only for a rather pathetic burst of smokey embers to escape the boy's mouth. "Maybe we should go to another room. It is time for your studies afterall."

Now both of them groaned and Alucard found himself wanting to chuckle even more, though he kept his composure.

"Come now," Alucard picked them up, one in each arm, "Even I was not born perfect. I had to work hard to be as brilliant as I am now."

"Still an ass," Vali grumbled as they, or rather Alucard, began walking.

Alucard shook his head a little, ignoring their mewls and growls and the tugging of his hair as they begged not to continue their studies, which at this point, as Iarna told him, were merely learning to read, and he had figured that reading to them would suffice. He had more than enough books that they can use for that purpose, and why not add in history, geography, astronomy, arithmatic, and science as well? Besides, he had to do something while the fetus in Iarna's womb still stubbornly refused to be born, and sitting in his study twiddling his thumbs had been the absolute last thing on his list of things to do right under talking to the plants in the garden again.

"Tell us a story," Vali demanded.

"No." Alucard replied, only to get his hair tugged by the little brat.

Vera nestled her head on his shoulder. "Please?" She pleaded with a soft purring mewl.

"Hm." Alucard hummed. "No."

And just like that her sweet melodic purring turned into a growl.

"Papa tells stories better than you anyways," Vali grumbled.

"Your father can barely count to ten," Alucard argued.

"Nuh-uh!" Vera defended. "He can count to twenty."

"Like that's any better." Alucard rolled his eyes, again the two tugging at his hair and while it did not necessarily hurt, a mere pinch to him really, it still annoyed him but in truth what could he really do at this point? He failed to kill them the first chance he had and now they see him as another food source, a plaything that they can climb and bite and scratch as they pleased and he would barely lift a finger in retaliation, only managing to start petty arguments with them, this current exchange being one of them.

Then again, killing them would be easy, so lacking in any physical difficulty in fact he could probably get away with it if he handled the adult manticore and his witch lover just as quickly, though if one strike failed then there were some vain sense that he could more than certainly handle whatever came next, that of course being an enraged manticore that would stop at nothing to turn him to charred vampire dust and a witch with as of yet undefined magical limitations that would wished him deader than dead.

"Ow." He winced a bit as Vali pulled just a bit harder. "Now you're just tempting fate. That's three books for you."

"No!" Vali cried in anger and kicking his way out of Alucard's grasp, though it was a futile effort, being grabbed back instantly. "No no no!"

"Four." Alucard continued as he opened the door to his other study, another room in the same hall as their parents' dwelling that now held more apporpiate materials for its new purpose. This room had also been but a couple of doors away from their parents' room, meaning if Alucard listened closely he could hear two muffled voices talking to each other, and they knew it, or at least the manticore knew it with how low he kept his speech. But, for now, his focus was on the two children in front of him. "Now, which one of you want to recount what we learned yesterday?"

Vali sat pouting and growling. Vera had dozed off during the walk to the improvised study and was rubbing the sleep from her eyes after being jolted awake by Alucard setting her down.

"Hm." Alucard held his chin in thought. "I see. Uncooperative as always." He grabbed the failed attempts from yesterday, though their penmanship seemed to be getting ever so slightly better if Vera keeping the paper in tact this time counted as improvement of any kind. "Maybe save the writing for later," he thought to himself as he looked at the books and tried to figure out which one would best suit the lesson he had planned. "I shall be nice and let you pick the book for today. La Livre de l'Esperance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, or-" he noticed a certain theme in the books and narrowed his eyes with some suspicion before refocusing on the task at hand and turning to see both of the twins appearing to struggle to stay awake, swaying as though their heads suddenly became much heavier and their eyes were almost entirely closed. "What's wrong?"

Vali growled a pathetic little sound as Vera finally succumbed to the siren call of sleep, falling to the floor but jolting awake once more and looking worse.

"This happened yesterday, what is wrong?" Alucard gently tapped their foreheads, neither of them reacting as they usually do with biting or clawing.

"Having trouble." Adam appeared behind him, looking ever so slightly smug even as Alucard's sword whipped to his neck and barely stopped within a hair of his skin.

"Don't sneak up on me." Alucard growled.

"They're tired." Adam said, pushing the sword away with a finger. "They need an hour of rest every mid day."

Alucard sheathed the sword and sighed, watching as the manticore take his children back to their mother where they fell soon fell into a seemingly peaceful sleep at her side. "You know I did not agree to being their keeper." He sat off to the side, reading one of the books.

"And yet here you are, doing just that." Adam truly thought he could get away with such talk so long as he sat near his mate.

"Adam," Iarna shushed him. "We appreciate you not turning us into a meal Alucard," she gave a stern glare to her lover. "I doubt anyone else, even the church-" at that word, Adam made a gagging spitting sort of sound, getting another stern glare from her, "would have shown much kindness to us."

The vampire couldn't help but roll his eyes at that, returning to his reading. "Of course not. We're talking about the same people that murder innocent lives in the name of their supposedly merciful god." Again, the manticore made an awful sound of disgust in response to the mere mention of his antithesis, slightly annoying his mate again, though she chuckled a little. "I doubt he'd look favorably upon one of his creations procreating with demons."

"And I have fully accepted whatever comes my way when I pass," Iarna smiled, though Alucard noticed a faint hint of sadness in her eyes. Humans were so fragile despite what they say, always fearing their demise once they learn how inevitable it was. Strangely, Adam had a reaction to her words as well, especially as she winced. "Let's just hope the little one doesn't cause too much trouble when he finally decides to come out."

"How do you know that it will be a boy?" Alucard asked, his eyes on the book but not reading the words.

"Hm," Iarna hummed in thought. "Just a feeling. Intuition I guess. Certainly not a girl, right Adam?"

The manticore blinked, leaning forward slightly and hovering over her swollen stomach, taking a tentative whiff and leaning back. "No."

Iarna giggled at that. "I'm not exactly sure how he knows that, but we argued so much about this during my first pregnancy and as it turned out we were both right." She smiled at Alucard, and not only was it friendly it seemed she expected something of him but what he could not figure out yet.

"Fascinating." Alucard turned the page despite having not read a single word on the one before, no matter really as he had read this book hundreds of times before. "Did you perform any silly old superstitious rituals to figure it out?"

"I didn't consult the blood of chickens if that's what you're asking," Iarna seemed a bit offended at his accusation.

"Of course you didn't." Alucard sighed, wondering why he chose to still be in this room.

"I asked their bones."

Adam made another sound, though it did not sound as though he had a furball stuck in his throat this time, and Alucard looked at her, seeing her giggle even more.

"I'm joking." She had trouble containing her laughter and at that point Alucard may have decided to leave if not for the fact he, in some dark pit in the deepest depths of his soul that he questioned more and more with each passing day, sincerely miss having a genuine conversation with someone that was not made of cloth, and it seemed she too did not want him to leave judging by her calm heartbeat, and so, despite his creeping unease, he decided to stay and chat for whatever such little words were worth.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Baby's coming and it's coming NOW. Let's hope Alucard studied this in-oh wait, medical school doesn't exist. OH NO.

Two days later on the day before the summer solstice, and after hearing more of what passed as pride from the manticore in the matters of childcare, Iarna's water had broken and both the adult males, that being Alucard and Adam, were now preparing for the quickly approaching arrival of the third manticore half-breed. Alucard worked under his mother's instructions that she had written in her journal, one of the only things he had left of her, and Adam under his mate's guidance who in turn claimed her expertise in this matter came from her grandmother and no amount of arguing with Alucard in the differences of helping animals give birth and helping humans would stop her from advising him on what to do despite his insistence.

Still, this would be a simple task to complete in theory, as all he needed to keep in mind, according to the journals, were ensuring a clean environment and handling both mother and fragile newborn with caution for this would be a long period of suffering. Alucard held more power in this circumstance, as he had extensive medical knowledge and an entire castle full of the proper equipment at his disposal, leaving Adam to find entertainment for the children and assure them their mother would not be dying despite all the agonized wailing and screeching they would surely hear.

"I'm giving birth Alucard, I'm not old," Iarna scolded him when he tried to put in another pillow for her comfort. "Surely you haven't grown attached to our humble little clan have you?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Alucard scoffed, still holding the pillow. "I will be happy to be rid of you and your bastards the moment the chance arises."

"Oh really?" Iarna smirked despite all the pain she surely was experiencing.

Alucard lightly threw the pillow at her. "The only reason I hadn't killed the little monsters was because the extra food I keep making would have spoiled."

"Of course my dear golden lord," Iarna giggled as she placed the pillow beside her, allowing a short silence to fall between them. "Have you ever done this before?"

"No." Alucard looked at the journals and books once more as a way to pass the time.

"I mean have guests," Iarna clarified. "Do you truly live here all by yourself? Not even a single servant to call on?"

"Not unless you count the rats fucking in the Belmont walls, no." Alucard flipped a page with disinterest. He did not want to talk about this but he felt he could not abandon her now. "And the corpses out front." He felt a hiss in his voice. "Might as well start putting up signs. Do you think 'abandon all hope ye who enter here' is too vague?"

"Well with all the animals you've killed why not go entirely mad? You have enough skulls laying around don't you?" Iarna winced but held herself steady.

Alucard genuinely had not thought of this but now that the idea had been introduced to him it held some appeal and lines of animal bones would surely get his point across all the same.

"Are you-?" Iarna looked at him and threw the pillow back, which he caught with no issue or surprise. "I was joking!"

"Both of you are terrible at humor." Alucard tossed it back. "You best not plan to stay too long when that thing is born," he flipped another page. "There is a city nearby, three days travel by normal human walking speed."

Iarna sputtered as if insulted by that word. "Normal. Truly humanity are nothing more than sheep if they need a shepherd to guide them every single day of their miserable lives."

That had piqued had some interest but if he wanted them out of here soon, if-that word rang in his mind with uncertainty and possibility as loud as a clocktower's upon the hour, he would best not hear that story of how she came to have such views though given her magical abilities and generally unique appearance the best educated guess would be a life shunned by the apparently all loving church and welcomed by fellow oddities of the occult persuasion.

"Give a man a fish, he eats for a day." Iarna continued with her pained rant. "Teach a man to fish he believes himself a god and tries to decide who lives and who dies."

"Yes, thank you-" Alucard sighed, eyes still on the pages, "for that insightful statement. Are you ready to push out the bastard now or-"

A flash of light appeared and he had dodged the lightning with only a single hair singed and the wall next to him burnt and smoldering. He looked back to Iarna, her face twisted with a fury that could rival that of his father when they battled for the fate of the world.

"It was a joke." Alucard tried to smile as softly as he could but her fury only wanted to a small annoyance, replaced with pain as she settled back into a more comfortable position.

"And you call our jokes terrible." Iarna groaned and sat back, grimacing and breathing heavily. "I don't suppose Adam told you how we met."

"No," Alucard said as he cautiously approached and sat on the edge of the bed. "He told me about the bar fight though."

"Ugh, men," Iarna groaned again. "Nothing more than a bunch of stags."

"Only fatter, grosser, and drunk as piss." Alucard tried again and this time no lightning bolts to shut him up. "But no, he did not mention how you two came to-" he looked at Iarna's swollen belly and grimaced himself a bit. "This."

"Well," Iarna seemed delighted as his momentary discomfort despite not knowing the full reason behind it that he could not fault her for. "It's a bit of a funny story actually-" she winced again and Alucard made note of how much closer this one had been to the ones prior. "Probably for another day."

If she even stayed long enough that is. Pushing two little writhing half-breeds and not dying in the process might have been a stroke of luck for her, and even with Alucard assisting in the third he would rather not hear that story. Speaking of the other half-breeds, it seemed that despite all of what he could boast, Adam had failed in properly entertaining the two for long and the three had entered the room with excited and impatient yowls as they joined Iarna on the bed.

"Mama! Mama!" Vali shouted. "Papa took us outside!"

"We went flying and and and-!" Vera sputtered, barely able to speak.

"Now now my dears, one at a time," Iarna kept her own discomfort to a minimum, listening and holding her children close.

Adam looked to Alucard, then to the scorched and still smoking wall, back to Alucard, then to Iarna, then back to the vampire once more, standing by him and keeping watch.

"You made her mad." Adam said lowly so that only Alucard could hear.

Alucard said nothing.

"It is alright." Adam looked to Alucard again. "I made a similar mistake when the little ones were first born." His chin lowered again. "Tepes almost threw a crucifix at me. Not that it would have done much."

"Tepes?" Alucard clenched his grip on the book, paying some mind to the binding and not letting too much of his rage show. "So you did know my father." He hissed.

Adam did not say anything now, only lowering his chin even more and even averting his gaze down to the floor.

"It's quite alright." Alucard let out a breath if only to release his nails from the book. "He wasn't much of a people person. Only ever tolerated them and even then it was such a fickle thing, almost as if he wanted an excuse to kill the whole of humanity."

"Every demon had heard his call," Adam nodded. "Most of them followed his orders to lay waste to Wallachia. I almost obeyed, though I was not one of his summoned army of idiots."

The vampire looked to the manticore with what could be called curiosity. "Almost."

"Almost." Adam repeated and went to join his family, another one of those softer expressions on his face that could pass for a smile if he just expressed himself a little bit more.

Alucard watched them, returning his attention to the books and the journal despite having already read them nearly a hundred times each, the journal more so as it had more intimate knowledge of what to expect in this circumstance than a clean illustration of a baby's head coming out of a hole a bit too small for its size.

Time began to pass him by and he had almost ran away with his thoughts but Iarna's whimpers soon became short and sharp shrieks, meaning his medical expertise now met its test.

And now he marveled at how horrible of a mistake this was.

He was sure losing this amount of blood usually killed someone. The screams were near deafening wailing cries of agony, which Alucard definitely could not fault as he had a perfect view of what was causing it and neither of the books had prepared him for this sight.

"Oh fuck this is disgusting," Alucard found himself muttering and almost gagging at the rushing scent of blood.

"SHUT UP!" Iarna shouted and Alucard did not argue or speak any further.

After many long hours of pushing, shouting, screaming, trying in vain to keep everything clean and accepting this would be yet another mess to take care of later, even shooing out Adam when he attempted to peek in, the third manticore child came into the world with one final shrill screech just as the sun began to rise, and it took a moment for Alucard to realize what exactly he now held in his hands. In his grasp, a new living being that could not take care of itself laid twitching and gasping. This little fragile thing could not even begin to understand that its life literally depended on Alucard not wanting to hurt it in that exact moment in time.

Iarna panted and tried to move. "The...the baby...?"

She sounded worried and with good reason. Babies should be crying, that was all they could do for better or for worse, but their worries subsided as the silence of the room filled with the smallest squeaks and cries and Alucard blinked, realizing he needed to do a few more things.

Water. Where was the water? The thing was filthy. Or scissors first? And the smell was horrible yet overwhelmingly appetizing to his vampire half, strangely and incredibly disgustingly. He heard her voice, raspy and hoarse yet still loud and clear to him, and with her help he cut the cord and not the little thing's penis, thankfully, not that he would have mistaken one for the other.

He cleaned the baby, a boy, and gently wrapped him in a blanket, handing the little bundle of fragile limbs to Iarna's waiting arms.

"My beautiful boy, look at you," Iarna cooed, no longer acknowledging anything else in the world besides the newborn.

Perhaps for the best, as Alucard slumped into a chair, his hands and clothes covered in blood, piss, and only hell knows what else, his ears were ringing and his head ached in ways he had only thought to be capable after drinking a whole barrel of wine, not that he would know what that sensation felt like. The tiny window in this room let in some of the morning light, casting the room in a warm glow as if the summer sun itself wanted to say hello.

"Alucard?" Iarna's voice finally broke through the haze of his thoughts.

"Yes?" He looked at her, not remembering when he cleaned up most of the bed.

Iarna seemed hesitant but smiled at him. "Thank you."

His face smiled and he let out a long laughing sigh. "Yes, because where would you be without me?"

They both laughed tiredly and the door creaked open, two scared little faces peeking in. Vali and Vera cautiously wandered in a few steps that quickly became leaps and bounds when Iarna motioned for them to come closer. They jumped onto the bed to coo over their newborn sibling with curiosity and excitement, though a few comments about how squishy and weird it looked were made and all in good fun for yes, it did look weird. Now that Alucard could properally think about what happened it did not take long for him to begin making comparisons and the best he could come up with had been the likeness of a potato. Or those turnips he once had that had the exact figures of Trevor and Sypha.

Now that pulled him out of the moment of joy and celebration, seeing that Adam had now joined and gave the baby a cautious sniff before holding it. They looked completely content in their little world, and all the vampire could do was watch, which he also felt content with.

Alucard hadn't thought of those two in a while and now he wondered what exactly would happen if they arrived, and that itself perplexed him. For all he knew they could be walking to the front entrance right now and would spoil this moment for him with their unfunny jokes and insincere praise. Or they could nearly be halfway across the world, as far away from him as possible and that thought did not sit well with him either. Neither of those options even included the mentions of the phantoms that were still quiet.

Phantoms or not, he still had more work to do, mainly cleaning himself up. He excused himself, not that he needed to do so, and made a surprisingly short trip to the sweet mechanical comforts of the bathroom in the castle to wash up, change his clothes, and freshen up a bit. He let out a long sigh that he did not know he had been holding and splashed cold water onto his face.

"Now what?" He asked himself. Let them stay? Make them leave? The latter would not be possible for at least a month, more if Alucard himself had to push something of that size through his...possibly even more now that he thought of it. Everything had been done correctly, no sudden changes, not a single speck of dirt or dust, and besides the baby taking a few moments longer to breathe and cry on its own there appeared to be no reason to worry any further, at all really he told himself. Why did he care whether they lived or died? He should not be concerned with their wellbeings, never should have concerned himself with them in the first place. So why did it matter?

This question he asked himself more and more as he walked back, seeing that Adam had disappeared somewhere, the scent trail leading down the hall and out, most likely further out to the forest and even beyond and Alucard would not blame him.

"And where is the patriarch?" Alucard asked as he gathered his things, surprised there had been a bit of blood smeared on some pages.

"Oh he did this when these two little devils were born," Iarna smiled and sighed a little. "He'll be back soon."

He wanted to make a comment but did not feel like repeating any of what happened earlier. "Fair enough." She did not seemed entirely upset in the slightest, still fawning over her children and showing them how to hold the baby, both of them careful and their eyes lit up with wonder as the tiny bundle was placed in their usually clumsy grasp.

Now that the worst of it had been behind them, breakfast sounded perfect after that ordeal. The twins were too fascinated and thus not likely to bother him, and if he remained inside he could go with a simple meal but the scent of blood still stung his nose so heavily it may be the only thing he would be able to smell for the foreseeable future. Perhaps fish would satisfy this craving, or duck, though rabbit sounded better to deal with the thirst for blood.

So much to do and with what felt like so little time in the day. Why did he care again? Why did he bother to care? He had no reason to care, he should have killed them the first chance he had and yet he didn't. Time and time again he had his chance and yet did not follow through with any of his threats.

Tepes....though the manticore did not say it was his father, perhaps there was a chance. A chance that his father too had shown this kindness, helping another not for any gain but for no other reason than it being the right thing to do, though what that meant could be argued for ages and in fact is still argued in this day and age, Alucard figured at least one oh so great philosopher would have been able to conclude what that vague phrase meant. And yet despite this, his father still unleashed Hell upon the humans for the actions of a select few. Or perhaps...

No, he shook his head. What strange twist of fate would that be?


	10. Chapter 10

"I'm going to kill it." Alucard growled to himself as the shrieking of the newborn managed to disregard all logic to be loud and clear to him even when Alucard was in his study quite a ways away from it and worse when he was only a few doors away from it. Him. It? The newborn had still yet to be named after two whole days and the vampire would be lying if he said its screaming and crying were making the already difficult task of trying not to care for the manticores that much more easier.

"What?" Vera asked and it was precisely at that moment Alucard remembered he had been minding the little monsters again and their sharp ears heard his growls.

"Nothing," Alucard spoke louder, flipping a page in a book he had been trying to read.

"The baby screams a lot," Vali muttered as he played with little wooden knights and horses that were once favorite toys of Alucard's, found when doing some late night cleaning as Alucard had nothing better to do when sleep did not come at all and near impossible with a screeching newborn nearby.

"As do you but you don't hear me complaining," Alucard felt his lips twitching into a smirk when he felt claws and teeth on his leg, looking down to see Vali now in demon form trying to attack him and failing miserably as Alucard made no hint of even the slightest discomfort. "Try again," he kicked and Vali made a yelping shriek as he was flung away, tumbling back to his feet with no issue.

"We're not babies," Vera argued, splattering paint on the parchment, another relic of Alucard's past that he dug up and allowed the manticores to use.

"Yes you are." Alucard argued back. "You two are so tiny I often think I will step on you."

Vera stuck her tongue out at him, her cheeks puffed and reddened with anger, and Alucard made no reaction, infuriating her even more as she proceeded to pour more and more paint onto the poor parchment that struggled to maintain its shape under the weight of all the pigments being applied to it.

"Have your parents come up with a name for it yet?" Alucard asked, finding the book had been doing nothing for his boredom but to join in either of the two in their games, or worse to attempt pleasing both by dividing his attention, did not seem appealing either and thus stuck with his book to at least keep them from thinking he was bored.

"They talk about it," Vali said while pawing at the toy soldiers.

"Well tell them to hurry up or else I shall keep calling it an 'it'." Alucard flipped the page after some time in his continued efforts to appear preoccupied. "Speaking of your parents, where is your father?"

"Hunting!" Vera answered with such a happy chirp he almost believed her if not for the fact that he knew the demon had been making himself scarce except for the few times he had dropped off bloodied carcasses of wild animals.

In that regard, Alucard found himself thinking more about the odd relationship between the demon and human. Demons ate humans, controlling them for their own amusement, while humans feared and, if they were stupid enough, tried to fight demons. For such a pair to co-exist peacefully and even as a mated pair was surely against some law of nature and reason, as Alucard himself, along with the demonic hybrids before him in one of the only times he would consider being similar in any regard to them, had been the product of such a relationship. If he had to make a point of comparisons, it would be in similar vein to a creature also born of predator and prey, the noble steeds known as hippogriffs, the offspring of a griffon and its favorite meal, a mare, and the likeness had some basis in reality for a manticore was... part lion.

However the lord of the castle had been interrupted in his latest stream of thought by another loud shouting noise.

"Are you sure he hasn't run off to escape the chains of fatherhood?" Alucard flipped the unread page again.

The twins looked up at him with some bewilderment, as if the thought of their father disappearing had never occurred to them, and with good reason, for besides these recent outings and Alucard ordering the manticore to patrol in return of the vampire playing nanny, the demon patriarch stuck close to his mate and offspring, and one would not blame Alucard for thinking of his own father and all the stories his mother told of the vampire spending many hours simply watching his young.

"Alucard!" Iarna's voice called with a hint of fury and it was then Alucard realized the noise from before was also her.

He sighed and closed the book. "Stay here, don't break anything."

Taking the few steps down the hall to the new nursery Alucard saw that Iarna was distressed, more than usual considering she had little sleep and had pushed out a writhing screaming potato merely two days ago.

"I'm here," Alucard heard her heartbeat soften for a moment before quickening again.

"Alucard, go find Adam." She wasted no time speaking her mind.

"Ah yes, because I am your loyal dog." Alucard hissed but mostly in annoyance than any true anger towards the woman. "And what artifact of his should I assault my nose with to get his scent? His shirt or his trousers?"

"Alucard," Iarna hissed, the still unnamed baby asleep in her arms.

"I let you in out of a fleeting kindness," Alucard hissed back. "It would be wiser to not test those limits."

"And it would be wiser to go see about that town you mentioned because I am quite sure that even those idiots would have noticed a new castle in the middle of the forest that suddenly appeared out of nowhere." Iarna argued. "And Adam is still," she sighed, "as graceful as a newborn fawn when it comes to humans. He hasn't been away this long before and as you can see I have my hands full."

"Oh? Well I am not like the last Tepes you met, so do not expect me to bow down to your whims so easily." Alucard narrowed his eyes and she narrowed hers as well, resulting in a silent battle of who will be the first to bend.

Her heart beat quickly despite her unwavering gaze. Perhaps she thought he was more akin to an animal than a human and by keeping her eyes on him he will submit sooner or later. However, he too had a plan here. He mentioned the name Tepes on purpose, and indeed she did have a reaction upon hearing it, and now Alucard studied her eyes in an attempt to understand what the name meant to her.

"Do you really think they haven't noticed? " She said, still staring directly at him.

"I know they have." The thought occurred every night and he resented that they were the cowardly types that stayed far away and did not investigate.

"They can show up at any moment."

"I would notice the scent of fear long before they arrive at the door."

"And you would kill them all?"

"With no mercy."

At that, Iarna seemed to admit defeat. She looked down, the setting sun illuminating her pitiful expression. "You have her stubborn heart, that's for sure."

Her.

At that, he knew what she meant and clenched his fists. How dare she hide this from him? No wonder she felt entitled to his home, even seeking it out in the first place, believing that simply being one of his mother's patients that she could exploit his emotions. Before him a true witch sat like royalty while his mother had been murdered.

"If he is still alive, we will leave by sunrise. If not, you may leave us at the burrow where you found us. We will not bother you and be gone in a month."

In her eyes was a false determination often seen in those who try to convince themselves they were not afraid, and he relished in the thought that while he failed to follow through with any of his threats her base instincts of wanting to live and protect her spawn gave him power and surely she knew that he would not falter should the terms of this agreement be broken.

As if fate wanted to test him, the twins made noise from the play room, and Alucard, somewhat stupidly, had second thoughts.

Perhaps he had been too harsh, letting his emotions run wild and cloud his judgement. Or perhaps he had good reason to be suspicious of someone who acted as though they knew every detail about him and kept such an important detail to themselves as he was kept in the dark. Perhaps he should have asked about this sooner. Perhaps never. But now it was out in the open whether he liked it or not.

"You better pray your monster love is alive and well," Alucard hissed as he turned to leave and the castle felt silent as he walked through the halls, grabbing his coat and sword along the way, determined to rid himself of these intruders one way or the other.

Three days travel by normal human walking speed, that is what he told her. Neither he nor the manticore fit that description. A few hours if he ran full speed, the manticore should at least be half that fast when it came to flying. Why would the manticore even bother heading to the city? There was plenty of game in the forest, unless somewhere in his limited knowledge of humans he had gotten the idea that he needed a man-made item for the witch and the bastard spawn, the demon surely seemed to type to think such things, but what could have been so important to risk so much?

Alucard stopped mid stride when he realized there was a familiar scent in the air.

"Fire."

Cautiously, he continued forward, the scent faint but growing stronger as he made his way, and some part deep in his mind felt afraid, be it for himself because of that awful nightmare or for the manticore. He shook his head. The manticore could easily kill any number of humans, there was no reason to fear for its safety, even in the hope that if it was alive the whole clan of monsters could be gone and out of his life for good sooner rather than later.

But if so, why did it feel as though his heart was racing for a reason other than the physical exertion?

There was a light in the distance, a faint warm glow and the scent of fire was even stronger. Just as he could recognize the flames a loud roar shook both air and ground. The roar spoke of pain, of anger, of desperation, and it was indeed the manticore. More than that, he was only within a short travel of the castle, again judging by the speed of normal humans.

Why were they so close? He thought with a rage as the roars continued and he, somewhat cowardly, hid behind the trees as he approached to get a closer look.

"Are you sure its the same one?" A voice asked, a simple farmer judging by the looks of it, as it inspected the manticore, caught in chains that burned its skin.

"I am sure," another man spoke, not from around here as indicated by the accent, darker skin, and the clothing style. "This is the same demon I have battled once before."

Alucard watched as the foreign man leaned closer to the manticore, a look of disdain on his face.

"I see I made a mistake assuming you were killed from that strike," the man asked as he unsheathed a long, curved, white blade. "This time, I shall watch as the unholy light in your eyes drains away."

As he watched, Alucard felt his heart racing more and more, visions of the dream coming back to mind with every second the scene before him played out. The humans only saw a monster and by some dumb luck they had a monster hunter on call, but Alucard knew the manticore was not a mindless beast, but a father just trying to provide for-

"Watch out!"

The sword slashed a wide area, each man, roughly a group of half a dozen strong for lack of better words, jumping back and waving their torches and pitchforks with blind scared fury.

"It's the night hoard!"

"We're fucked!"

"Show yourself you damn demons!"

Only the man with the white blade stayed calm as he looked around for any signs of more demons.

"You fools." Alucard's voice echoed in the dark. "You dare to assault what is mine and call me the monster?" If the men were not scared before they were now as the darkness around them grew more and more with each of their torches suddenly going out thanks to precise aiming with the sword. "You are nothing more than pests in my garden."

One man died quickly and not so quietly as the sword slashed his throat, his dying breathes muffled by blood.

"John? John was that you?" One man asked just before he shrieked from pain, no doubt in part because of the sword in his chest.

"Leave now and maybe I shall show mercy-" Alucard continued, dodging a strike from the monster hunter's white blade, now easily identified as the tusk of an elephant and understanding why it hurt the manticore so for there were only two things that a manticore could not kill, the elephant being one of them. "An enchanted blade," Alucard smirk. "I have one as well," the blade in question whipped back and parried the elephant blade, sending the monster hunter back. "What shall it be, foolish human? An honorable duel or an agonizing death? I'm feeling nice tonight."

"Those fangs," the man with the elephant blade hissed. "Men! We face a vampire!"

"Of course they have wooden stakes at the ready," Alucard muttered as he made quick work of two other would be hunters, his heart racing again when they tried to fight and avenge their fallen comrades, mentally squirming at the thought of being touched by any of them. "I see you have chosen death."

He killed another two before deciding the stench of it all grew too much before he simply could not stop himself.

"I will not repeat myself." His eyes must have been glowing if the younger survivor shrieked and hid behind the other. "Leave."

Some were quick to make a run for it, and apparently the man with the elephant blade could not find it within himself to let the poor fools survive the night alone, so within due time the lot of them were out of sight soon enough, the scent of their fear and blood still lingering and appetizing to say the least.

Alucard glared down at the manticore, still panting and struggling in the chains before they were broken with ease with his sword. "You idiot."

Adam gave a weak growl in protest as he tried to stand, falling onto his knees and into something resembling his human form before he even hit the ground. "Fuck that bastard."

"I'd rather not." Alucard sighed as he sheathed the blade, not bothering to look at the badly beaten manticore too long. "Another old foe I assume."

"Fuck. That. Bastard." Adam growled even more as his features turned more demonic, his body steaming as he stood half naked.

"And again, I would rather not." Alucard averted his eyes for despite the physical appeal of the sight he was still shaken, much to his anger. "They were hunting you."

The manticore held his head down. "They will be coming for the castle."

Alucard felt a growl in his throat. "Surrendering already? You still have me and I am more than enough to handle an infestation." He looked to the manticore. "But you are in no shape for battle."

"Just give me time," the manticore stumbled again, his body unsure of which form to take, at least having wings and a tail.

"No." Alucard gave him a kick and the two were off, one sloppily flying the other running. At their speed they would have at least a few more hours before the men regained their wit and came for the vampire's head in addition to the manticore's, and seemingly along the way the lord of the castle had made up his mind about the demons.

They were his to command now, and what was his, just as with the castle and all the treasures it holds, he would protect with his life.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey real quick do ya'll know what a barn owl sounds like?

"In the basement, now." Alucard said as he opened the door to the nursery, surprising the mother and children.

"Wha-?" Iarna, dozing off but trying to stay awake, was stricken with a mixture of emotions, her eyes widening for a moment before narrowing and darting all around studying Alucard's form while her body tensed and tightened, only loosening when her lover appeared. "Adam."

"Bastard's back." Adam huffed, still an odd and rather grotesque amalgamation of demon and man as he approached the bed, most of his wounds still actually bleeding. "Go to the basement. Alucard and I will hold them off."

Iarna's eyes went wide again and she began to shake her head. "No, Adam-!"

"You're going with them," Alucard said from his spot by the window, seeing the faint orange glow of a mass of torches in the forest. "No wonder my father got away with killing them so easily. They're running straight to their deaths," his eyes narrowed at the movement, they were clearing the distance and clearing it quickly, there was no time to wait. "It's no silver platter but it will have to do."

"For the love of-" Iarna gasped, trying to stand but only managing to sit up in bed with great effort while holding the baby. "Are you actually going to eat them?"

Alucard looked to her and gave a sly smile. "It's a joke."

Iarna froze at his response but not with fear, as if she was struck with realization but with no time to comprehend what it was as Adam hauled all three onto his back and in his arms where they would fit. "Adam you're bleeding!"

"I am fine." Adam insisted, almost believable if not for the fact his wings and tail twitched and his wounds festered with every movement. "Besides, I have much experience carrying your weight."

With their speed, the not so merry band of not quite hunters would clear that last stretch of land before the castle in just under two hours, roughly midnight, such a perfect hour to slaughter such an eager mob of fools. He vaguely wondered what they were thinking, the deaths of their own still fresh on the mind, their hearts and minds rushing with frightened dread, wrathful fury, and the vague heroic ideal of storming the den of monsters, killing the demons, and returning home with trophies and glory.

And how, in the mind of the vampire, those hopes would be dashed for many upon seeing the welcoming sight of two dried corpses on the front steps of the estate. Would they be smart enough to figure out that the night could only end in disaster and death, or would they be good little sheep and follow the herd if only for their own dwindling safety?

In any case, Alucard noticed that Adam had paused at the sight of something, the portrait of a Belmont come and gone, the ancestor of that drunk Trevor, Leon Belmont.

"The horn." Alucard, neither asking nor saying, looked at Adam as he and the rest of them settled down in the basement, huffing and still bleeding, leaving a noticeable trail of burning, stinking monster blood.

Adam simply nodded, trying to stand once more but his strength finally giving out as he laid panting heavily on the basement floor.

"Pa-" Vali mewled tiredly, shaking as his sister gently prodded their father with her little hands in an attempt to rouse some reaction. "Papa?"

With the manticores settled one way or another and Iarna already preparing what looked like healing magic, he would not know specifically but he could only guess given the circumstances, the vampire began to make his exit, his footsteps echoing in the cold stone of the hold with the weight of this new burden on his shoulders, not even the idea of caring for the entirety of the castle and the newly added Belmont household felt like this.

"Alucard," Iarna said with such sternness he had almost thought of his mother. "You stay alive, you hear?" Her eyes focused upon him once and more and this time it was Alucard who felt himself unsteady in their silent war.

He looked at her and saw just how tensely she was holding herself, from her furrowed eyebrows and clenched jaw to her shaking hands. What was he to her, he thought, that the idea of him dying would elicit such a response? Or was it merely because he was the last remaining piece of his mother that she was so close to crying over that losing him would mean losing her as well?

"I will." He nodded and closed the door behind him, the sounds that were once clear now faint. He made that first step with some hesitance but with each step he found more will, more reason, more purpose to keep going until he stopped, feeling he was being watched. "You swore to kill monsters and protect innocent lives," he spoke in a low growl. "Now the ones you call monsters need to be saved, and the ones you called innocent are filled with a thirst for blood. What will you do now, Belmont?" He spoke to the painting, the enigmatic smile of the blond man clad in knightly armor giving no response, as expected. "You best keep them safe or I swear I will find the last of your miserable bloodline and render it extinct."

He knew exactly what he said as he stormed off, the eyes of that Belmont still on him, and to honor that vow he would either castrate, be it slow and painful or quick and too merciful for the man, or kill Trevor Belmont, both would have the same result in the end. Though remembering the so called legend that brought the three together of the scholar, the hunter, and the soldier, the vampire let out the smallest shaking breath at the thought of trying to even fight Sypha.

No time for that however as the glow of torches drew closer and closer, and here Alucard stood with only his sword and his wits at his disposable.

"I should have made golems," he muttered to no one and he took a deep breath.

A whole baker's dozen now, meaning there were two groups that had split off but now merged once more. The ones of the first group were easily identifiable by their frightened hearts and soiled clothes, the newer ones only smelled of sweat and anger, undoubtedly with the news of death of those close to them if only in their hunt for monsters led by the man with the elephant tusk blade.

Speaking of, the man had a more peculiar scent. Spices mostly, but his heart was calm to an almost unsettling degree. Even Trevor had felt some amount of fear in their battles but the man with the elephant tusk blade had such a steady heart that the vampire just had to wonder who he was and what led him to nearly killing a manticore, twice. A traveler who just so happened to be skilled at the art of slaying beasts, or a man with a mission, just like all the others who believed themselves to be chosen.

Those questions were useless to think of at a time like this and Alucard wondered if he should utilize what remained of the castle's machinery to do most of the heavy lifting.

"And I keep forgetting to make the damn sticks," Alucard hissed to himself as he watched the group edge closer, their movements slow now undoubtedly tired after all that sprinting and if he had to give them any sort of praise it would be the annoying human tenacity. "Are you really going to do this?"

Those words were not his and he, still somehow able to become startled even after all this time, froze in place but quickly regained his sense of self to know that if he were to look over his shoulder those blasted puppets would be sitting right there on the banisters and this time he kept the blade unsheathed and his eyes ahead, glaring at the problem at hand and not at what were once comforting reminders of what he lost. In his throat were the sensation of words trying to form, but they would not be in his voice. He knew they would be in that of the Belmont and the Speaker, whatever remnant of their memory, their true selves that he had come to know through many travels and battles, urging him to keep his humanity.

"I have no other choice." He spoke lowly. "Yes, you do, you just don't want to think about it." He shook his head. "Just pretend you're not home, they'll tire themselves out and leave." He gripped his sword. "No. They will not stop until everyone here is dead, and this time the Belmont hold will not be the only thing that burns to the ground." He turned, seeing that indeed standing there were, at least in his eyes, ghostly images of Trevor, arms crossed as he leaned against the banister, eyes looking to the floor, and Sypha, her eyes aflame with that same fierce determination that she had when she threatened to turn him to ash to defend the Belmont. "We all made our choices, and this is mine. Be gone, phantoms."

The two visions dissipated in the low light of night, and just in time as the doors were now being furiously, and quite rudely, accosted.

"Open up vampire!"

"Demon bastard!"

"Go back to Hell!"

Alucard hopped up to one of the windows, an old and faint memory resurfacing of this being one of his favorite spots to gaze longingly at the outside world, this time he saw thirteen humans at his door, demanding his blood and perhaps even his head on a stick. Speaking of, his warnings were indeed noticed and some of the would be hunters were smart enough to stay back and away from the corpses, humans were a superstitious type after all.

"Alright then," Alucard, quietly, opened the window and trained his focus on the member furthest away from the group, another faint idea of keeping the man with the elephant blade for the manticore should he survive this. "You want a monster? I'll give you a monster."

In a flash of golden light, his long hair being illuminated by the moon and stars, he jumped and dashed forward, unsheathing the sword and plunging it into the abdomen of the unfortunate winner of his selection process. The unsuspecting man coughed up blood, and thankfully Alucard had enough sense to keep himself a fair distance away even while attacking. He twisted the blade and released the man, along with a few feet of innards as the vampire turned on his heel to face the gaggle of rudeness at his door.

"Well?" The man with the elephant blade, a curious weapon the more the vampire thought about it which was not exactly the best time to do so, seemed annoyed with the hesitation. "Get him!"

Swiping the blade clean Alucard almost laughed at how easily he made short work of them, even asking himself why he had gone through so much trouble in the first place to save humanity if they were such a hostile kind, but when he saw one that he had previously just tossed away lunging at him once more he realized that, for some ungodly reason, more than likely to be the last of his respect for humans courtesy of trying, that word being the operative one in this instance, to show them mercy by cutting shallow wounds in none lethal areas.

Inner forearm here. Bicep there. Just under the last rib. He had stabbed one in the leg, close to the loins and doing his absolute best to not cringe at the sight, and the man still tried to fight.

Come on, he growled to himself as he continued striking. You'll die if you continue this stupid game. Leave already!

"Gotcha!" One such unthinking genius triumphantly said as he grabbed Alucard by the hair, but the vampire made no reaction.

At least, he did not outwardly express the sudden panicking of his heart and mind at the mere idea of being touched by another living being that could, given the right circumstances and this current situation being able to become one such perfect opportunity, put his life at risk once again. Alucard clenched his jaw and grip as he kicked the man in the groins, vowing to never tell Trevor that he stopped to such a low tactic, and with more sureness in his movements he slashed at the offending's man throat, nearly beheading him and to his vampiric half, the scent of blood was now at war with the new instinct of running as far away as possible to hide under a rock to never be seen much less ever be touched again, but he ignored both halves of himself and focused on the battle, now making sure his attacks left more serious injuries if not entirely fatal in the first place.

It was precisely at this moment that Alucard had now realized that none of the humans he had been fighting and killing were the man with the elephant blade, but he did see him standing like some hapless bystander and not like a proper swordsman or even a monster hunter should that truly be his calling.

Just as Alucard had even begun to think of finally cutting the writhing sneering head off this serpent, a multitude of hands grabbed his being, focused at his arms and legs, and gripped so tightly any lesser creature would either bruise or be crushed.

And he froze.

Not again-! His mind further spiraled into a fear that he thought he had long since buried within its deepest crevices. Not again, not this again, no-! No no NO!

He kicked and squirmed and thrashed and yet his body could barely muster any strength to do any of these, his frightened mind stuck within an unmoving body that could do nothing but burn at the memory of this familiar sight. He knew that what he saw was not real, the ceiling of his bedroom, the forms of those two he had trusted, their forms twisting and melting between the image of life and death, the blade hovering above his chest-

BOOM.

......

............

A quiet groan, weak and feeble, had been the only sound that penetrated the silence that followed the loud crack and flash of light that interrupted the scene in his mind. Upon further inspection, Alucard realized that the groaning was in fact a dying gasp impeded by the blood of its own body that swelled and burned within its flesh, boiling over in disgusting rashes not only upon the face but perhaps the whole body of what once was a human man, now only a steaming corpse that fell over under its own weight, revealing a look of horror upon the face of the man with the elephant blade that he shared with all of the hunting party, and Alucard would be lying if he did not admit that the lightning had also given him a shock, no witty play of words intended.

"Witch!" One man yelled as he released Alucard, followed immediately by that of the other party members, all shouting and shrieking so much that the vampire could only liken the sounds to that of an animal.

"Monster!"

"The devil's whore!"

As the humans all threw their accusations and backed away, Alucard recognized the distinct scent of a storm, more violent than it had ever been before, and it was the one scent that he could make out in the swarm of sweat, blood, urine, and the slightest whiff of excrement.

"Monster?"

Despite all of the shouting, her voice was the loudest despite only being above a whisper, the best she could do as she staggered and stood awkwardly upon the top most steps of the castle's entrance.

"You call me the monster? Me, who was cast out for being born like this? Me, who only found solace in a fellow outcast only to watch her die? Me, a wife, a mother..." Her voice was filled with venom, as if years of anger were speaking and not the kindness he has seen and known. "Men like you kill the one and only friend I had in this world, and you call me the monster?"

"Witch!" The man with the elephant blade found his voice, pointing the blade at her. "Where is that demon?"

Iarna did not immediately reply, standing as still as a corpse and from where Alucard had been crouching, she was right between the two impaled bodies.

"You face Iarna Munteanu, hunter." With her head still down, she outstretched her arms. "The witch you couldn't burn."

She threw her head back and from her an echoing ear piercing screech that could not be of any human origin bellowed. In a vain attempt to protect their hearing from such a hellish sound the men covered their ears and Alucard himself flinched at the noise, as he realized that she had stopped screeching and the noise they were hearing was from another source that he could not identify and for the moment he would attribute it to the forest itself, from the air to the trees, now gifted with the ability of speech, making use of their newfound voices to scream and cry with all their ancient might, and finding the grip of his blade Alucard swiped with little to no aim, making sure to cripple any who were still within his range as he retreated, as opposed to fleeing, this circle of hell just as the first feather caught his eye.

Barn owls, he thought for a moment, the only mundane animal that made such a demonic cry, numbered by a dozen, then dozens more, and he last counted seventy two before they all blurred together in a flurry of feathers, talons, black eyes, and screeching.

Alucard took a second, and only a second and not a heartbeat more, to gather himself and leave the humans to the birds before realized one was not accounted for. He turned to the man with the elephant blade who was now climbing up the steps of the castle, striking any and every owl that attempted to stop him, eyes set on the witch as she stood in a daze, eyes upward and as black as her owls.

The man with the elephant blade shouted and Alucard dashed forward, blade first, hoping with all his heart that he would be faster than a mere human, knowing full well that he, a being more creature than human, would conquer such a short distance but to him it might as well have been the other side of the world.

"NO!"

The world, an ever changing and ever moving rush of sights, of sounds, of smells, and sensations, stood still as if carved and set in stone that no other tool could ever blemish its surface, and yet every fiber of this moment in turn engraved itself into his memory.

His heart beating to the point of pain, a reminder that despite it all, he was alive.

His breath panting in the cool summer night, heavy and shaking as he stood.

His blade shining under the moon and stars, all witnessing what he had done.

His nose catching freshly spilled blood, and finding that a hunter's blood did smell different.

His eyes seeing the crimson liquid leaking and staining the man's clothes, gushing onto the ground.

Another gurgle, this one followed by a cough as the man tried to speak but found no words.

He pulled the blade back and tossed aside the still breathing body, assured that the fall would take care of the rest, and saw that the blade made of an elephant's tusk right at Iarna's feet, her body still before collapsing.

The vampire dashing once again, a shorter distance this time, and caught her, finding that she was pale and sweating but breathing.

"A-" she panted, her eyes returning to their true color. "A-"

"Don't speak," he pressed his hand to her mouth. "It's over." His eyes swept over the steps of the castle, seeing blood and bodies spilled haphazardly all about, the owls now content with their craft and either eating what was left or standing guard, their feathers tainted with death. "It's over."

"Yo-" still, she made the effort and he could only admire her tenacity. "You're-" she slumped in his arms. "Just like her." She went limp and after quickly making sure that she had not died, hearing her heart beat and feeling her labored breathing, he sighed and pressed his back against the door, his own breath evening out, seeing an almost comically heavenly circle of light around the moon as it continued to shine over the massacre that painted a perfect portrait of ruin.

And in the harmony of discord and despair, Adrian smiled as a few tears streamed down his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because it's terrifying.
> 
> Also confession time, I've only seen season 1 but got spoiled by memes and such so uh...sorry for any inconsistencies?


	12. Chapter 12

His heart pounded with excitement, rushing the precious blood all throughout as his breath, panting with each burning movement of his muscles, tried to keep up with it all. Each long gliding stride of his legs kicked up only small puffs of dust and dirt, barely a touch but not going unnoticed by the smaller inhabitants of the forest; birds flew away as the passing gust of wind disturbed them, tiny furry creatures ducking and diving back into their burrows as they sense the presence of a predator on the hunt, the trees unmoving, almost standing in watch of the game before the old and aging guardians.

The vampire only had his eyes forward as the rush of scents and sounds and sensations passed through him. A new flower close to his foot here, and he carefully but uncharacteristically clumsily stretched his leg to land without touching it, feeling a sharp shooting pain as he launched himself in the moment immediately after. A young feathered fiend chirping in what could only be the most vile swears in the avian tongue as the vampire hopped onto the same branch it had been perched upon, disturbing its peace. The dirt and grass and twigs snapping under his bare feet, a new feeling he would have never in a million years thought of doing before.

Closer and closer the end of this chase was coming near, and soon enough the stream was within view. Such a trivial matter to the vampire, he even stopped running forward to instead jump high into the air, breaking the treeline and getting a spectacular view of the land, trees as far as the eye could see, save for the small speck of a city in the horizon, and when he came down the vampire landed in the river with barely a splash just as the other participants in this run landed next to him, the water getting all over the three of them.

"Rrraaarrr!" Vali growled and roared as he gained his bearings, shaking off the water and now standing in his demon form, stretching his undoubtedly sore wings and tired legs.

"Again again!" Vera cheered, hopping and splashing around with vigor. 

"Perhaps after a rest," while also winded, the vampire kept his heavy breathing to a minimum as he sat on the bank of the stream, feeling tiny claws on his hand. "And hello to you, Leon."

Sure enough, the youngest manticore had crawled up to him on unsteady pudgy limbs, almost the spitting image of its father if not for the eyes which resembled the mother to a near fault.

"A fine run my lord," Iarna smiled as her eldest two now chased each other up and down and across the stream. "You three are getting along quite wonderfully."

"Iarna," the vampire said as he let the infant grab his fingers. "You have no need to call me that."

"And I have been called many things in my life, but I will not be called rude." Iarna argued with a gentle expression on her face, a welcomed contrast to the strained faces she used to make when the baby was seemingly undecided of when to arrive. "Isn't that right Adam?"

The manticore huffed loudly. In equal measure to Iarna's newfound relaxation, as much as any of them could be with a squealing infant in the midst, the patriarch of the peculiar clan laid lazily in his demon form, presumably more comfortable, tail twitching with sleep as he breathed with deep rumbling snores, though his eyes were still open the tiniest bit as he watched the youngest of his offspring was playing close to a body of water, and even a demon can understand the dangers of that.

"As you wish then," the lord of the castle made no further objections and divided his focus between the playing twins and the curious infant. "Though perhaps naming a demon after a monster hunter could be seen as such."

"After what the portrait did?" Iarna urged with aghast and alarm. "The last living Belmont should be honored I even considered it."

"It's been a month and you still insist it moved on it's own?"

"You are just as familiar with magic as I am," Iarna argued.

"And as well versed in science," he added. "The Belmont hold is showing it's age, the portrait simply fell."

"Right as one of those hunters just so happened to be trying to get in?"

"A coincidence." He smiled, knowing it could go either way.

"If you insist," Iarna huffed.

At that the vampire chuckled. "I'm surprised the demon had no arguments to be made, considering the horn and all."

"The Belmont knows better than to invoke my wrath," Adam, rousing from his slumber and into his human form, bellowed with a thunderous growl, shaking off the last embers of sleep and not even flinching when his older spawn pounced on him excitedly at the prospect of a new playmate. "Even from beyond the grave."

That made the vampire chuckle even more, much to the ignorant delight of the little demon who chirped with joy and attempted to play with the creature of the night by patting and clawing at the golden lord.

With something of a start, silence fell and Adam stood still, sniffing at the air, his nose wrinkling as he seemed to looking for a particular scent and the vampire had noticed that the more the manticore searched for the scent, the more demonic his features became. Teeth growing sharp, starting at the canines, pupils becoming slits as thin as needles, his nails longer but barely impeding or disturbing his grip upon his offspring. At last, he made a noise, a growl, low and almost purring with disgust.

"Words dear," Iarna lightly scolded, now the object of attention for the infant and more than happy to coo and tickle at the littlest manticore's belly.

"It is time to hunt." Adam lowered his chin and looked to his mate and the vampire.

No other words were said or perhaps even needed as the three manticores disappeared into the trees and undergrowth, their forms gently swaying until all plants that had been in the path were either thoroughly trampled or stood still in their places once more as if nothing had been there to begin with.

"Iarna." The vampire said lowly.

"I know, I know," the snow white woman sighed. "I am but human, and the sight of such things do still disturb my heart, even if only a little."

"No," he began to say. "Well, I believe it is related. There is something else I wish to discuss."

"Oh?"

The vampire looked at his reflection in the water, that of her in the corner of his eye, the images distorted with the movement of the flowing stream and what lied below. "You knew my mother, did you not?"

She did not immediately respond but her heart's sudden quickening was enough of a response.

"Why did you not tell me?"

She looked down, still smiling for her child's sake but the child had realized something had been amiss. "Would you have even wanted to hear me say her name?"

"In the state I was in at the time, no. I believe I would killed you on the spot. When Adam made mention of Tepes I had assumed he meant my father, but it makes far more sense if you two had met my mother."

No response.

"She helped you give birth to the twins." He continued, and still no response but judging by the change in her breathing, strained with swelling tears, he was getting answers and whether they were answers he wanted he had still not yet decided. "You called her your only friend. I am ashamed to admit I had made myself rather distant around the time she had been...." he paused now, narrowing his eyes at his own reflection and almost tempting it to change into that of his father. "When she was taken by the church. I did not savor my years of childhood, rushing impatiently into adulthood without learning all I needed to know about this cruel and harsh world."

"She was a wonderful woman." Iarna spoke now, her voice broken but found nonetheless. "I had my doubts, not because of any superstition mind you but because-well, do you wish to know that?"

He looked at her with something of a smile. "You can speak freely."

"Well," Iarna took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "When I made mention of magic, she scoffed a little and at that moment I wanted nothing more than to strike her."

That took him by surprise but after experiencing for himself the ever changing moods caused by pregnancy he understood how such a response would sound.

"But-" Iarna continued. "After the twins were born, we talked and found we had much more in common than we realized." She sounded much happier, even if in grief. "She loved you and your father very much."

Now it was his turn to remain silent and he could only imagine what sort of talks they had, comparing their magic and science amidst squealing newborn cries, the manticore nowhere to be seen after being overtaken by a new instinct to provide for his new spawns that could only cry, soil themselves, and cry even more.

"Alucard-"

"Adrian."

"What?"

"You know my name," he clarified. "The one I was given at birth. Surely she told you that much."

Iarna took a moment but nodded. "She did."

"When it just the two of us, like this," he continued. "I want you-" he paused, suddenly stricken with doubt and fear. Had he said too much? Too little? Was he mistaken in putting his newfound yet unsteady and doubtful trust in her and the entire of her clan? He knew the manticores were off terrorizing some animal, or perhaps even a human that had foolishly wandered into these woods judging by the patriarch's reaction to the scent that the vampire had failed to pay close attention to when he had been gallivanting around just mere moments before. "I-" he tried again and took a sharp breath. "I want you to call me Adrian. And," he saw her reaction, mostly one of wide eyed confusion, "I want us to speak more about Lisa Tepes. I want to know her as you knew her, as her friend and a fellow scholar."

The tears in her eyes welled but her mouth was not twisted with grief. "Of course-!" She cried with a smile. "Of course. I would be happy to, Adrian."

Adrian smiled back, feeling tears of his own in his eyes but not letting them fall, no longer out of some false bravado and refusal of his emotions but because he knew it would upset the baby, already making sharp noises to gain their attention. "Then let us be off."

"Should we not wait here for Adam and the kids?"

"They know their way to the castle," Adrian assured, holding out his hand and helping her up from where she sat. "And if he is indeed hunting and not lazing about, we should prepare lunch."

"Right, of course my-" Iarna stopped herself, her smile now gaining a small coyness. "Adrian."

The two began walking, slowly, leisurely, taking in the sights and sounds despite almost nothing having changed at all from the last time they had been outside. The same trees stood exactly where they had been since they were first planted by the wind and animals so long ago and while the animals may have changed ever so slightly, descended from those that survived long enough to reproduce, they made the same quiet chattering all the same. The same sun, whose light the vampire once scorned as being uncaring, shined as it always had but now with a warmth that he had realized he missed when shut inside the castle that grew closer and closer with each step the two took.

"You may want to hold your nose." Adrian advised as he caught the scent of rot and knew they would only be getting closer to it if they wanted to reach their destination.

"No no," Iarna shook her head, her focus on the baby in her arms who writhed and mewled. "I'll be fine."

"As you wish," Adrian nodded but knew deep down the sight would be uneasy for the both of them despite the agreement made.

Far off, relatively speaking at the slow pace they walked, the land rattled with a low almost melodious trumpet-like sound of a manticore roaring and within the thunderous sound a pair of higher pitched shrieks. A victory, so it seemed, and both wordlessly agreed that it would be best to not question what they had so been proud of finding until they brought it, whatever this mysterious prey may turn out to be, back to the estate.

"Are you sure you wish to enter this way?" Adrian asked once more, his eyes, sharper than hers, now seeing the first signs of the entrance to the castle besides them now standing so close they were almost in its shadow. "There is another entrance."

"I'm sure." Iarna nodded, brows furrowed and eyes hardened with determination. "Come now Adrian, I may be human but I'm not fragile."

He nodded but did not smile, his eyes catching the first hint of the source of that awful stench. "Of course."

Within the air of the wilderness there clung a silent calm that radiated from the tallest of the towering trees to the tiniest shoot of a blade of grass. If the trees could speak they would surely be whispering among themselves about all those who wandered by, judging them from the way they walked to the words they spoke and deciding whether they were worthy to be within this seemingly untouched realm but alas, the average mortal has yet to decipher the enigmatic speech of howling winds and rustling leaves, letting these travelers venture further into these woods with the naive belief that they could conquer any and all threats that came their way, be it fickle weather or ferocious beast, and in these lands a ravenous bear or particularly dedicated and vicious goose would be the least of their worries.

As soon as any traveler saw the glistening peaks of spiraling towers, they would be overcome with a vain pride that surely whoever lived there would have to entertain honored guests, or feel relief that they would no longer be exposed to the harsh elements and seek shelter within the walls of this unusually placed seemingly man-made structure.

These travelers, ignorant to the whispers of the trees and kicking away the bramble that scratch their faces and legs in an attempt to ward them away from the true danger that lurks ahead in the guise of a civilized estate standing proud within the wilderness. Such travelers only realize their foolish folly once they lays their eyes upon the grisly sight that welcomed them in the form of corpses mounted on wooden spikes that framed the stairway leading up to the extravagant building's ornate front doors. Only then, as they stand in shock and horror and disbelief, hoping in vain they were but dreaming a horrid dream, do they come to the realization that they stand before what could only be the gates of Hell, and it is then at this precise moment do they learn that is far too late to return from whence they came as they stand amidst blood and gore that laid at the feet of a proud sphinx that patiently awaited for more prey to enter in hopes of treasure.

No treasure laid in these woods, at least not any within the boundaries of gold and precious gems, lest any traveler think themselves brave to enter the bloody gates. The true treasure of this forest was one that could only be seen by its sole inhabitants and it was a bountiful find that they guarded closely. This treasure was a home for those discarded and lost to the world, but not one so easily given to any pitiful vagabond no matter how tattered their rags may be or empty of any gold or silver their pockets and purses may be and to those who could not find that treasure, they instead joined the line of rotting defeat that lead to the grand estate of towers.

And this treasure, one that even its holder still appraised with each passing moment it was within his grasp, was a possession that Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes, the only son of Vlad Dracula Tepes and Lisa of Lupu, the sleeping soldier of Gresit, the slayer of Dracula when all had, with all due respect and apologies for such crude language, gone to absolute shit, would protect this treasure to his dying breath and without a care to how many corpses shall lay at his feet to defend what was precious to him.

And as a vampire, an immortal being with tremendous strength and lightning fast speed that went unmatched by any mortal, that vow would be a long and surely unbroken reign.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if there'll be a sequel to this, even in a sort of collection of one shots. Maybe, maybe not, but thank you for reading and hope you enjoyed the ride.
> 
> Edit: *throws papers everywhere*Don't quote me but I have a lot written that kinda didn't make it in this so there will PROBABLY be something more, haven't decided yet, just need to get it all in order and considering how long this fic took it might be a hot minute but I swear there's more.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll try to properly warn for sensitive material in certain chapters considering what happened in canon; enjoy the angst(I guess)!


End file.
